HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The phrase “one shining moment” will be heard frequently this weekend, especially here in South Florida, where two schools qualified for the Final Four of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament to be held in Houston.

Horsemen, both in South Florida and approximately 1,200 miles away in Arkansas, will be hoping many of their heretofore unheralded 3-year-olds – Cinderellas if you will – can have one shining moment Saturday in either the Florida Derby or Arkansas Derby in hopes of qualifying for the Kentucky Derby on May 6.

When Mo Donegal won last year’s Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial, it was trainer Todd Pletcher’s seventh victory in the race, equaling the record of Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons.

On April 8, Pletcher is likely to send out three runners in search of a record eighth Wood trophy – and perhaps another Kentucky Derby starter.

Pletcher is planning to start recent allowance winner Classic Catch and maidens Dreamlike and Crupi in the 1 1/8-mile Wood, which awards 200 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to its first five finishers (100-40-30-20-10).

WHO’S HOT

Red Route One

Gun Runner – Red House, by Tapit

Bred in Kentucky by Winchell Thoroughbreds

Like most trainers at Tampa Bay Downs this winter, Mike Dini will be staying put the next month or so until moving along. With no more stakes remaining at the 2022-23 meet, some stables are already vacating the Oldsmar, Fla., track for New York or Kentucky, but Dini will help to keep filling races at a Tampa meet that effectively runs through Kentucky Derby Day, May 6.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A pair of $54,000 statebred allowance races to be decided at six furlongs on the main track highlight the final Wednesday program of the 2022-23 Gulfstream Park Championship meet, which ends Sunday.

A field of six colts and geldings will decide the afternoon’s fifth event, a well-matched group topped by Rockin Roller and recent runaway maiden special weight winner Khozeiress.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Like just about everyone else, trainers Danny Gargan and Tim Yakteen were caught off guard when a full field of 12 3-year-olds was drawn for Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby. And neither was pleased when his horse drew an outside post position for the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby prep. Dubyuhnell, trained by Gargan, and Fort Bragg, trained by Yakteen, drew posts 12 and 10, respectively.

Modern Science has but one win from 14 career starts, but there was a time – two times, actually – that he came within a neck of winning a stakes.

Trainer Ian Wilkes believes he has Modern Science back to his best form, a theory he hopes the 5-year-old gelding confirms in a first-level allowance/optional $35,000 claimer at 1 1/2 miles on turf that serves as the featured event on Gulfstream’s nine-race Thursday program.

Prominent U.S. runners have played a key role in the development of the Japanese breeding and racing program into an international superpower. Chief among those, of course, is Horse of the Year Sunday Silence, with the 1989 Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner becoming a breed-shaping sire in Japan.

Sunday Silence appears in the pedigree of all four Japanese-bred colts who are considered potential Kentucky Derby candidates. However, other American expatriates figure prominently in this quartet, as well.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The jockey standings at Santa Anita will evolve in coming weeks, at least among the names chasing runaway leader Juan Hernandez.

Through Sunday, Hernandez led all riders with 49 wins, well clear of Flavien Prat (25), Tiago Pereira and Frankie Dettori (21), and Hector Berrios (19).

Prat and Dettori will not remain among the first five for very long. They are scheduled to leave for Kentucky and Britain in the near future, following plans laid out at the beginning of the year.