OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Dermot Magner has at least three young horses that inspire hope for a solid 2020 season. Included in that trio is Trash Talker who faces winners for the first time in Friday’s $70,000 first-level allowance/optional-claiming feature at Aqueduct.

Trash Talker, a son of Competitive Edge, won a six-furlong maiden race here Dec. 7 in what was his fourth start. Though he may have been aided by a surface that turned speed-favoring over the second half of that card, Trash Talker has come back with a series of solid workouts since.

Hall of Fame rider Mike Smith will be honored with the inaugural Jack Van Berg Horse Racing Award during the Oaklawn Kick-Off Banquet on Jan. 15, said Mark Schlesinger, a longtime owner and businessman in Arkansas. The event will be held at the Wyndam Riverfront Hotel in North Little Rock, Ark. Schlesinger said a crowd of 500 to 600 is anticipated.

Chief Cicatriz, who won his third consecutive stakes race in the recent KLAQ Handicap at Sunland Park, could be headed back to New Mexico, trainer Shawn Davis said. The horse, who is based at Turf Paradise, is under consideration for the $75,000 Ft. Bliss on Jan. 25 at Sunland. Davis said options also include the $75,000 Phoenix Gold Cup on Feb. 8 at Turf Paradise.

ARCADIA, Calif. – McKinzie, a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding older male of 2019, worked five furlongs in 1:00.80 under jockey Drayden Van Dyke on Wednesday at Santa Anita.

The workout is part of McKinzie’s preparation for an expected start in the $20 million Saudi Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 29.

McKinzie worked alone and quickened noticeably in early stretch. Trainer Bob Baffert timed McKinzie in 1:01, with a final furlong in 11.40 seconds. McKinzie galloped out six furlongs in 1:13.20, Baffert said.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Friday’s $51,000 optional-claiming feature drew a field of 11 going a mile on the main track, led by the steadily improving Kid Bourbon and New York-bred Blewitt, who is one of two Todd Pletcher trainees in the race along with Mac Jagger.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A Thread of Blue, among the invitees to the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational on Jan. 25, was the marquee name entered Wednesday for Saturday’s $100,000 Tropical Turf at Gulfstream. The Grade 3 Tropical Turf shares top billing on the card with its filly counterpart, the Grade 3 Marshua’s River.

ARCADIA, Calif. – In 2019, the unraced 2-year-old filly Time for Sally caught the attention of trainer Gary Sherlock on a visit to breeder Terry Lovingier’s Southern California farm.

“He said, ‘This is the best filly,’ ” Edwin Alvarez recalled on Wednesday.

Alvarez was standing outside of Barn 99 on the Santa Anita backstretch, remembering the early encounter he and Sherlock had with Time for Sally.

Alvarez worked for Sherlock for 15 years until the trainer’s death on Dec. 29 from cancer. Alvarez has since taken over the 10-horse stable.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Devil Made Me Doit, whose blowout maiden win on opening day at Santa Anita stamped him as one of the most exciting local 3-year-old prospects of 2020, is on the shelf.

Trainer Doug O’Neill said Devil Made Me Doit came out of his 9 1/2-length maiden victory “body sore.” He will be turned out 60 days and return the second half of the season.

“He needs some time, and we’re giving it him,” O’Neill said Wednesday. “He’s a super talented horse, a big-time horse.”

Since Steve Asmussen trains a full barn of horses through late autumn, winter, and early spring at Fair Grounds, and the Asmussen stable is heavily populated by talented young stock, you might guess that Asmussen has found plenty of success in the Lecomte Stakes, Fair Grounds’ first dirt-route stakes for 3-year-olds.

That would be incorrect. Asmussen hasn’t won the Lecomte since Z Fortune captured the 2008 renewal, but he plans to start three horses in the 2020 Lecomte, the anchor of Fair Grounds’ multi-stakes card on Jan. 18.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – World-class sprinter X Y Jet died suddenly Wednesday morning of an apparent heart attack following a routine gallop at the Palm Meadows training center, trainer Jorge Navarro said.

Navarro said his exercise rider gave him a thumbs-up coming off the track after X Y Jet had completed his gallop. But once he got to the barn the 8-year-old began to show signs of distress.