The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s March sale of 2-year-olds in training has the pole position, tasked with establishing market momentum for the season – and freshman sire Drain the Clock could be getting away from the pole quickly.

Among multiple juveniles to distinguish themselves during the under-tack preview show that precedes the sale, two from the first crop of Drain the Clock made headlines by equaling the OBS track record for a quarter-mile breeze, and he also had a filly among the furlong bullet workers as well. 

There is a vacancy at the top of California’s older Quarter Horse division in advance of Sunday’s $160,000 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship.

The 400-yard race, the track’s first major event of the year for the division, will provide some clarity going into spring.

A group of five 4-year-olds who have won six-figure races in the last year are expected to dominate Sunday’s race – Defending Champ, Favorite Jesshawk, Holy Pete, Lethal Cowboy 123, and Show N Tell Cartel.

Two trainers have two fillies each for the $100,000 Allen “Black Cat” LaCombe Memorial, the featured race Saturday at Fair Grounds, but a third trainer with one key entrant won’t be participating at all.

Cherie DeVaux said Alone Time, instead of racing in the LaCombe, a 1 1/16-mile grass race for 3-year-old fillies, will ship to Tampa Bay for the Florida Oaks. That not only removes a key contender from the LaCombe, but it also takes away the race’s only real speed.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sterling Silver, who proved no match for the speedy R Disaster early last fall at Aqueduct in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom, will look to avenge that setback when the pair top a field of nine older fillies and mares in Saturday’s $175,000 Hurricane Bertie at Gulfstream Park. The Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie highlights a 12-race program that also features the $125,000 Silks Run going five furlongs on turf.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The bubble wrap comes off champion Nitrogen on Saturday at Oaklawn Park.

She gets to come out and play in the Grade 2, $400,000 Azeri, a 1 1/16-mile race for older fillies and mares that highlights the first-ever “Kids Day at the Races” at Oaklawn. A strong field of seven has come together, including multiple Grade 1 winner La Cara, Grade 2 winner Quietside, Grade 3 winners Regaled and Perfect Shot, and multiple stakes winners Standoutsensation and Majestic Oops.

Don’t look now, but this is turning into one of the more interesting crops of early season 3-year-olds. Two more stakes Saturday, at Tampa Bay and Santa Anita, continue separating wheat from chaff.

Tampa Bay Derby

This race came up deep and interesting, with a “Big 3” – Further Ado, Powershift, and Canaletto.