OLDSMAR, Fla. – Cousin Stephen was a disappointing favorite in one of those rugged first-level allowance races at Gulfstream Park early this month. In actuality, the performance wasn’t that bad, but trainer Chad Brown believes the colt can do better.

[Sam F. Davis Stakes: Get PPs, watch Saturday's card live]

“He scoped with significant mucus in his last race,” Brown said. “I’m just going to draw a line through it and run him in this stake as I had planned to do if he had run better.”

Mike Smith, the Roswell, N.M., native who was inducted into the National Racing Hall of Fame in 2003, will be inducted into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame during a ceremony on Feb. 23, according to the organization.

Smith, 48, will be inducted with Gary and Henry Sanchez, a father and son who were both track and field coaches, according to the Hall.

Smith has won all of racing’s top races, and he is currently first on the all-time list for wins in the Breeders’ Cup, with 20 victories. He has over $250 million in career earnings and more than 5,100 wins.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Beer vendors at the racetrack generally serve only beer. Then there is the guy that also dispenses handicapping advice, helpful for pick six carryovers.

Kalic Chambers is a hard-working family man. Six days a week he walks hots for trainer Doug O’Neill. On weekends, Chambers pours beer from a cart on the Santa Anita apron. Some day, he hopes to become a trainer.

“This is a tough game to break into,” Chambers said. “I just want to be around it someway, somehow.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Shug McGaughey said Wednesday that Honor Code had missed 10 days of training after “bruising up his back ankles a little bit” and was now unlikely to make the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on Feb. 22.

Honor Code, who closed his 2-year-old campaign defeating Cairo Prince in the Grade  2 Remsen, has been training at Payson Park, where he had a couple of easy three-furlong works on Dec.  31 and Jan. 18.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In some ways, George “Chip” McEwen is your typical Thoroughbred owner, scouting the sales ring for horses that can take him to the sport’s big races.

In one way, at least, McEwen is atypical in that the success of his stable will benefit many more people than himself. McEwen races under the moniker Wounded Warrior Stables and donates 10 percent of his stable’s purse earnings to charities that benefit wounded or ill war veterans.

New Year’s Day, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, was assigned top weight of 126 pounds in the Experimental Free Handicap rankings for 2-year-olds of 2013, which were released Wednesday by The Jockey Club.

New Year’s Day was ranked one pound higher than both Havana, who finished second in the BC Juvenile, and Shared Belief, the unbeaten winner of the CashCall Futurity who was the Eclipse Award winner as champion male 2-year-old of 2013.

Eliska Kubinova won the first riding title of her career at the Portland Meadows meeting that began last July 21 and ended on Sunday, according to a release from the Portland, Ore, racetrack. Kubinova won 55 Thoroughbred races during the 49-day meet, with Leonel Camacho-Flores second with 49 wins and Joe Crispin third with 45.

Kubinova, 25, finished third in the Emerald Downs standings last year and will ride there again this spring and summer.

Due to cold temperatures in the region, Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races has cancelled its live racing program for Tuesday. The track will remain open for simulcasting with the next day of live racing scheduled for Wednesday.

Jose Arias is $750,000 richer after hanging on to win at the final table of the Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship at Treasure Island in Las Vegas on Sunday. Arias finished with a bankroll of $338.20, just ahead of Tony Brice at $337.

Arias, a 36-year-old environmental safety engineer from Bell Gardens in Los Angeles, came into Sunday with a two-day score of $326, a significantly higher total than any previous NHC winner.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The pick six paid $56,017 to 29 ticket holders at Santa Anita on Sunday after a two-day carryover of $430,875.

Bettors added a robust $2,202,874 to the pool Sunday.

The winners of Sunday’s pick six races were Horizontalyspeakin ($6), Writer Fever ($8.40), Diversy Harbor ($13), Chelios ($5), Lakerville ($19.60), and Fit to Rule ($15.60).

Only Chelios was favored. Horizontalyspeakin and Writer Fever were the second choices, while Diversy Harbor was the third choice in Sunday’s sixth race.