HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Barry Croft says rain is badly needed in South Florida after a couple of months of drought, and oh by the way, it wouldn’t hurt if the four races scheduled for turf Sunday at Gulfstream had to move to the Tapeta. The local forecast is calling for an 80 percent chance of rain.

“We really need it,” said Croft, who just so happens to have Hope in Him, the Gulfstream record-holder for five furlongs over Tapeta, entered in an $86,000 allowance that anchors a 10-race Sunday card.

Eight 3-year-olds during 2023 have run a race that yielded a Beyer Speed Figure of 97 or higher, and one of them swings back into action Sunday at Fair Grounds.

Bishops Bay was bet down to 1-2 favoritism facing nine rivals in his career debut Feb. 18 at Fair Grounds and ran to expectations. His margin of victory in a six-furlong dirt race was just three-quarters of a length, but runner-up First Mission, who was to run in a maiden route Saturday at Fair Grounds, has graded stakes potential himself.

Not even a wet winter in Southern California has derailed the red-hot campaign of The Chosen Vron, who will start as a heavy favorite in Sunday’s $100,000 Sensational Star Stakes for statebreds on the hillside turf course.

Despite recent rain, The Chosen Vron has remained sharp in recent training from trainer and co-owner Eric Kruljac’s perspective.

“He’s not missing a beat,” Kruljac said. “He’s been training up a storm. I think he’s retained all the fitness in the world that you can expect.”

Trainer Kenny McPeek has entered at least one horse in every allowance race feature this week at Oaklawn Park. He runs second-time starter Goodbye Kyle in the featured eighth race Sunday, but it’s hard to imagine this filly landing anything like the blow Smile Happy struck for McPeek in the featured eighth race Thursday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Bob Klesaris believes What’s Up Bro is pretty talented. He just wishes the 3-year-old gelding would show it on a more consistent basis.

“He hasn’t put two good ones back-to-back yet,” Klesaris said.

What’s Up Bro, coming off a good-looking allowance win last month, will get a chance to do just that Sunday when he faces stakes winner Andiamo a Firenze and four others in the $100,000 Damon Runyon Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds at Aqueduct.

Ever since Cigar shipped for the inaugural Dubai World Cup in 1996, the race has strongly been flavored by American participation. Deluxe Meydan Racecourse, which replaced the old Nad Al Sheba course, opened in 2010 with a synthetic surface, but after American participation waned during the early Meydan years, dirt replaced synthetic. American horses have won four of the seven World Cups on Meydan dirt. But the dynamic has shifted again.

The North American 2-year-old sale season gets away from the pole with the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s March sale, which looks to build off a strong 2022 edition.

A total of 833 juveniles are cataloged for the three-day sale, which runs Monday through Wednesday.

The sale is preceded by a four-day under-tack preview show conducted on the Ocala Training Center’s all-weather Safetrack. Through three sessions, a colt from the second crop of Good Magic held the fastest furlong, the traditional yardstick for these sales, working in 9 3/5 seconds.