Post Time faces a salty group of statebred or Maryland-sired performers in Laurel’s $75,000 Jennings for 4-year-olds and up traveling a one-turn mile.

The Jennings is one of four Saturday stakes with the $75,000 Geisha for Maryland-bred or -sired fillies and mares at a mile, the $100,000 What a Summer for fillies and mares at six furlongs, and the $100,000 Fire Plug for 4-year-olds and upward at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Track conditions could be affected by snow expected Friday through early Saturday. Frigid wind-chill temperatures in the single digits are expected.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With the Pegasus World Cup off his radar and the Grade 3 Fred Hooper coming up a bit salty as well, Octane will take the path of least resistance when returning to statebred company as the one to beat in Saturday’s $75,000 Sunshine Classic. The 1 1/16-mile fixture for Florida-breds drew a field of just seven, including Octane’s uncoupled stablemate The Skipper Too.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Even though the top California female is weeks away from a comeback, Adare Manor casts a shadow over the Grade 3 La Canada Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita.

Six fillies and mares entered, including Adare Manor’s stablemate Midnight Memories and her nemesis Desert Dawn. One-two finishers in the Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes at Los Alamitos last month, Midnight Memories and Desert Dawn figure to attract the most support in the 1 1/16-miles La Canada.

Nash came into Gun Runner Stakes on Dec. 23 at Fair Grounds following one of the best 2-year-old maiden wins last year, a 10 1/4-length romp at Churchill Downs six weeks earlier that yielded an elite 97 Beyer Speed Figure.

Track Phantom also had won a two-turn November maiden at Churchill, a strong performance good for an 84 Beyer, but not up to Nash’s level. Or so it seemed.

The late gelding Danjer, the winner of two leading stakes at Remington Park in the spring, was named 2023 Quarter Horse World Champion at a ceremony at the Heritage Place sales pavilion in Oklahoma City on Wednesday evening.

The award comes seven months after Danjer died of an aneurysm while based at Ruidoso Downs.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Mr. Ripple, who made a brief splash on the 2023 Triple Crown trail only to have his 3-year-old campaign come to a premature end during the spring, will make his long-awaited return in Friday’s $91,000 allowance headliner at Gulfstream Park to be decided at one mile on the main track.

Midtown Lights will be making her first start since June 28 when she faces seven older New York-bred fillies and mares in the featured seventh race at Aqueduct. And that might be a good thing.

Midtown Lights returned from a two-month layoff last February at Aqueduct, and while she finished second in a New York-bred first-level allowance, the 77 Beyer Speed Figure her performance produced is a career best.

Crafted and Lucky Jeremy will move to both stakes company and two turns off impressive maiden wins in Friday’s renewal of the $100,000 Riley Allison Derby at Sunland Park.

The one-mile race is one of four stakes on the card. It’s also this year’s lone stepping-stone to the Grade 3, $400,000 Sunland Derby. The meet’s signature race is being run about five weeks earlier than usual, on Feb. 18.

Barring a dead heat, one among four of the 10 entrants in Friday’s featured eighth race will lose for the first time at Fair Grounds.

The leading candidate is Midnight Escape, a 30-1 shot in this six-furlong sprint that has two allowance conditions (nonwinners of three “other than” and nonwinners of a race in the last six months) and an $80,000 claiming option. Pro Oxidant is 2 for 2 and a viable chance at a fair price, with bettors likely to gravitate toward Surveillance and even more so Corona Bolt.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The oldest horse still racing at Santa Anita plays a key role Friday in a pick six that begins with a $100,634 carryover and includes an allowance sprint that looks like a stakes race.

C Z Rocket launches his 10-year-old campaign against graded winners Ginobili and Hopkins, comebackers who enter race 7 with works that hint they will fire first start back. Based on speed figures, Ginobili and Hopkins are faster than C Z Rocket. But neither is as accomplished.