Book’em, among the fastest 2-year-old fillies of 2024, fractured sesamoids while breezing Jan. 6 at Fair Grounds and, owing to the extent of her injury, subsequently was euthanized, trainer Bret Calhoun said Sunday.

Calhoun had planned to launch Book’em’s 3-year-old season on Jan. 18 in the Silverbulletday Stakes at Fair Grounds. Instead, he has a hole in his stable and a heavy heart.

“You hate for something like that to ever happen, but right now, I had one good horse, and it was her,” Calhoun said.

ARCADIA, Calif. - A key defection from the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 25 may lead to the participation of the California-based gelding Mi Hermano Ramon.

Johannes, second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 2, and the winner of five graded stakes on turf in 2024, will not start in the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational after recently being diagnosed with bone bruising. Johannes is not expected to race again until the summer.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Grade 1 winner Sweet Azteca, who emerged last season as one of the top female sprinters in California, will have a different trainer when she returns for a 2025 campaign.

Sweet Azteca won five of seven starts and earned $487,200 for trainer Michael McCarthy and owner-breeder Pamela Ziebarth before she was unplaced as the 1-to-10 favorite in the Grade 3 Chillingworth at Santa Anita in October. Sweet Azteca was turned out afterward.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Journalism, one of the top Kentucky Derby prospects in California, has recovered from a minor illness after his victory in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity, but the brief setback will prevent the colt from launching his 3-year-old campaign as scheduled on Feb. 1.

Michael McCarthy trains Journalism, a 2-for-3 son of Curlin who has improved with each start. After his third-place sprint debut in the fall, he posted two decisive victories around two turns – a maiden win at Del Mar, and the Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 14. Journalism has not worked since.

They have cometh out of all corners for the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 18 at Fair Grounds.

The Fair Grounds racing office assembled and finalized the Lecomte and the rest of its six-stakes card Saturday, and a boxcar field of 14 was entered in the Grade 3, $250,000 Lecomte, the first 42-point scoring race in Churchill Downs’ Road to the Kentucky Derby.

The Road to the Derby, the series of races that determines the Derby field through points accumulation, has so far included stakes distributing 21 qualifying points spread among the top five finishers.

Frank Taylor and a program he founded that assists ex-addicts with recovery and employment have been selected to receive a Special Eclipse Award, the administrators of the awards announced Thursday.

Immersive, certain to be named champion 2-year-old filly of 2024 when Eclipse Award winners are announced later this month, has been taken out of training because of bone bruising, according to a news release from her owner and breeder, Godolphin.

Immersive had been stabled at Payson Park in Florida with trainer Brad Cox but was sent to a veterinary clinic for an examination because Cox “wasn’t happy with the way she was moving,” Godolphin director of bloodstock Michael Banahan said in the release.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- Any question as to how White Abarrio is doing since embarking on the comeback trail was answered, at least in trainer’s Saffie Joseph Jr.'s mind, Thursday morning at Gulfstream Park. The 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner worked five furlongs from the half-mile pole in 1:00.39 before galloping out a full seven furlongs in impressive fashion several minutes after the second renovation break.

White Abarrio is pointing to the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational on Jan. 25 as his first major goal of the new year.

Jockey T.D. Houghton, who has been riding since 1987, has been suspended 30 days by the stewards at Mahoning Valley Race Course in Ohio for failing “to use his utmost exertion” when riding a horse who was nipped at the wire in a race at the track on Jan. 6.

Sean Clancy, the co-founder of The Saratoga Special and a writer for the publication, will receive his second consecutive Eclipse Award for News/Enterprise Writing, and third overall, for an article recapping the 2024 Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course, the administrator of the Eclipse Awards announced on Wednesday.