OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Maple Leaf Mel looks to have found a good spot to make her first start off a 210-day layoff when she heads a field of seven New York-bred 3-year-old fillies entered in Friday’s $100,000 East View Stakes at Aqueduct.

A winner of both of her starts at 2, including the Seeking the Ante Stakes at Saratoga, Maple Leaf Mel was given the remainder of 2022 off due to shin issues. Jeremiah Englehart, who trains Maple Leaf Mel for Hall of Fame football coach Bill Parcells, said the shins were something the filly ran through in her two victories. The time off has helped.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Simon Crisford’s last Dubai World Cup came in 2013. For 20 years, Crisford had served as an adviser, spokesman, and racing manager for Godolphin. Godolphin’s architect was Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. Crisford and trainer Saeed bin Suroor for most of those two decades were the operation’s public faces. Crisford stood front and center for five Godolphin World Cup wins, starting with the great Dubai Millennium in 2000.

A full field of 14 Ohio-bred 3-year-old fillies is entered to sprint six furlongs in the $75,000 Southern Park Stakes on Thursday at Mahoning Valley. And although there are a handful of stakes-seasoned fillies in the field, the race could hinge on a tilt up front between two speedy and lightly raced recent maiden winners: Neechi, for trainer Robert Gorham, and Larry’s Angel, trained by Billy Cowans.

Easy Action’s natural speed will serve him well Thursday when he cuts back to one turn for the sixth race at Oaklawn Park.

He’s moving from 1 1/16 miles to 5 1/2 furlongs for the allowance for 3-year-olds who have never won two races. The sprint also offers a claiming-price option of $100,000. The race was split into divisions when entries were taken, with the second allowance going as the eighth. The purse for both divisions is $103,000.

Easy Action has a couple of different variables in his favor in the eight-horse field Thursday.

Trainer Brad Cox already has five horses ranked among the 20 3-year-olds included in the latest edition of Daily Racing Form’s Derby Watch. And the hits keep on coming.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With 27 winners from 97 mounts over the last 15 cards, Manny Franco has taken control of the jockey standings for Aqueduct’s winter meet. Going into the final three days of the session, Franco has a 61-53 lead over Dylan Davis, who has gone 19 for 102 over the same 15-day period.

Jose Lezcano, who has won 17 races from 61 mounts over the last 15 cards, is entrenched in third with 42 wins.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There’s been a lot of streaking going on at Aqueduct this winter.

Aside from the seven- and six-race win streaks put together recently by trainers Linda Rice and Rob Atras, respectively, several horses this winter have put together some impressive runs of their own.

The New York-bred stakes ranks, which have thinned out some, looks to have received an influx of talented runners this winter in the form of Today’s Flavor, Dr Ardito, Ouster, and Overstep, who have combined to win 15 of their last 16 starts.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita plans to race on Friday, April 21, as a makeup day for rain-related cancellations earlier this year, track officials said over the weekend.

The track did not have April 21 on its original calendar for the winter-spring meeting.

:: Get ready for Santa Anita racing with DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports. 

ARCADIA, Calif. – Accompanied by his family, Javier Castellano was honored with the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in a brief ceremony between races at Santa Anita on Sunday.

A member of racing’s Hall of Fame and a four-time winner of the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding rider, from 2013 to 2016, Castellano was recognized with an award first introduced in 1950 to recognize career achievement and personal character. The award is based on a nationwide vote of jockeys.

“It’s truly an honor to be here,” Castellano said. “It’s an amazing award.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Princess Bettina’s stakes win at Santa Anita on Saturday came at a good time for veteran California trainer Peter Eurton.

A 3-year-old filly who races for owner and breeder Don Dizney, Princess Bettina led throughout the China Doll Stakes to give Eurton his first stakes win since last March at Sunland Park and his first stakes win at Santa Anita since Storm the Court won the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

“The stakes have been avoiding us,” Eurton said on Sunday. “We didn’t have the right horses.”