HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna appears to be sitting on another exceptional season after taking down the Grade 1, $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap on Saturday at Oaklawn Park in just her second start at 4.

“She came out of it great,” trainer Kenny McPeek said Sunday. “I’m working on getting her to Kentucky. She’ll probably leave tomorrow.”

Thorpedo Anna went 6 for 7 last year at 3 to earn Horse of the Year honors. Her campaign included five Grade 1 wins – including the Kentucky Oaks and Breeders’ Cup Distaff.  

Justifreak makes his 2025 debut in a Wednesday allowance at Keeneland a little more than a year after surviving a horrific van accident that killed several stablemates.

But he'll be returning to the races as a winner.

“He worked really good here this morning,” trainer Eddie Kenneally said on Saturday. “We’re real happy with him. He’s training great.”

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan is scheduled to make his next start in the $200,000 Lake Ouachita Stakes at Oaklawn Park after turning in a sharp work Sunday morning, trainer Kenny McPeek said.

The Lake Ouachita is a 1 1/16-mile race for 4-year-olds and up and will be run on Kentucky Derby Day, May 3. It’s the final card of the meet at Oaklawn. Last year, Mystik Dan spent the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs, winning the Kentucky Derby for McPeek and an ownership group based in Arkansas.

ARCADIA, Calif. – California-based Baeza is not in the Kentucky Derby field yet, but he is getting close. Saturday morning at Santa Anita, trainer John Shirreffs outlined plans to train Baeza toward the Run for the Roses.

Baeza earned 37.5 Derby points finishing second to Journalism on April 5 in the five-runner Santa Anita Derby. It’s not enough to make the Kentucky Derby field. At least not yet. As of April 12, Baeza ranks 24th on the Derby points list. Only 20 can start. Shirreffs prefers not shipping to Kentucky if Baeza is on the also-eligible list.

Led by Louisiana Derby winner Tiztastic at Churchill Downs, four Kentucky Derby hopefuls turned in breezes around Kentucky on Saturday morning, with three weeks until their big engagement.

Flood Zone, the winner of the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct in March who finished seventh in the U.A.E. Derby on April 5, will not run in the Kentucky Derby, according to Case Clay, the U.S. racing manager for the Wathnan Racing operation of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. 

“He ran uncharacteristically flat compared to his first three races,” Clay said Friday night. “It would be too tall an order to come back here after running flat to go in the Kentucky Derby. Had he hit the board and ran well, closed well, we would have considered it.” 

The Breeders’ Cup will once again award incentives to runners in selected stakes races this year to drive entries to its dirt races, the organization announced on Friday.

The so-called “Dirt Dozen” will feature 12 stakes races throughout the lead-up to the Breeders’ Cup on Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at Del Mar that will award credits toward entry fees for the $2 million Distaff, the $2 million Sprint, the $2 million Juvenile, the $2 million Juvenile Fillies, the $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint, and the $1 million Dirt Mile.

Coal Battle has wasted no time getting acquainted with Churchill Downs. Some 36 hours after arriving in Louisville, the colt turned in his first local breeze toward the Kentucky Derby, going a half-mile in 48.40 seconds on Tuesday morning beneath the twin spires.

With trainer Lonnie Briley’s assistant, Bethany Taylor, aboard, Coal Battle clicked off an opening quarter-mile in 24 seconds and galloped out five furlongs in 1:02.40, according to Churchill clocker Adam Wallace.