Trainer Chad Brown believes there’s more than meets the eye to Iron Honor after he had to work harder than expected to beat an Ohio-bred stakes winner in Saturday’s Grade 3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct.

INDIANTOWN, Fla. - Watching from afar while growing up, before becoming a trainer, Brad Cox said he used to follow races like the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby with great interest. 

“I looked forward to that stuff as a kid growing up, reading the newspaper and (checking to see) who may run,” Cox said. “Watching Nick Zito and D. Wayne Lukas and now to be a part of that is kind of like a dream true. To be successful in those races means a lot.” 

INDIANTOWN, Fla. - It must be nice to run arguably the fastest horse in training on a Saturday afternoon and come back Sunday morning and work the reigning Horse of the Year.

“Yeah, we’re pretty fortunate,” trainer Bill Mott said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Grade 1 winner Brant is in, and Grade 1 winner Intrepido is out of the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes next weekend at Santa Anita.

Brant worked a solo five furlongs in :59.80 Sunday morning, after which trainer Bob Baffert said he planned to enter the colt in the San Felipe on March 7. It will be Brant’s first start since he finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Oct. 31.

Literate tallied her second consecutive stakes victory at Turfway Park in dominant fashion on Saturday night, rolling to a 10 3/4-length score in the $125,000 Wintergreen Stakes and earning a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 95.

The late-running Literate ($2.94), sent away favored, got a solid setup in the Wintergreen, a one-mile race for fillies and mares. Wrigleyville wasn’t posting scorching fractions, but got pressure throughout with Stylish Sue on her hip through the opening stages, posting the half-mile in 46.87 seconds on the Tapeta.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Horses are creatures of habit and the millionaire Quietside and her trainer, John Ortiz, have developed a “harmonious” training routine as she prepares for the Grade 2, $400,000 Azeri on March 7 at Oaklawn.

Ortiz, a former exercise rider, has started regularly galloping Quietside.

“We stand at the quarter pole every morning and we put on a few tunes on my I-phone,” Ortiz said. 

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Sticker Shock is likely to make her next start in a major Kentucky Oaks prep after a recent allowance win at Oaklawn Park.

Trainer Brad Cox said she is now a candidate for the Grade 2, $1 million Fantasy. The 1 1/16-mile race will be run March 27 at Oaklawn.

Sticker Shock won at the distance Feb. 26 to remain unbeaten at two turns. The start was her first against winners after she accounted for a maiden special weight at 1 1/16 miles on Nov. 29 at Churchill Downs.

The late trainers Christophe Clement and John Shirreffs, both of whom have passed away in the last year, are among the six trainers and seven Thoroughbreds who return to the National Museum of Racing’s contemporary Hall of Fame ballot for 2026.

The California Horse Racing Board will consider proposals for race meetings at the Tehama County Fair in Red Bluff in May, and the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale in August at a special meeting in Arcadia on Thursday, the latest effort to revive racing in Northern California.

Both county fair race meetings face difficult regulatory and financial obligations to receive approval from a racing board that voted against applications for proposed race meetings in Northern California on three occasions last year.