ARCADIA, Calif. – Roll On Big Joe may eventually get to Oaklawn Park this year after winning his first stakes in Saturday’s Grade 3 Palos Verdes at Santa Anita.

Trainer Bob Hess Jr. had Roll On Big Joe slated to start in the $145,000 Commodore Stakes for sprinters at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 22 until expected heavy favorite Big City Lights was withdrawn from the $100,000 Palos Verdes Stakes on race morning.

“I’d rather run here anyway,” Hess said on Sunday.

With leading foes Ballerina d’Oro and Simply Joking scratched, Good Cheer did what she was supposed to do at odds of 1-9 Saturday: Score an easy win over just three rivals Saturday in the Grade 3, $250,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes at Fair Grounds.

Regardless of competition, or lack thereof, Good Cheer, who's won all five of her career races, got a different kind of trip than in any of her four starts at age 2. She earned a career-best 89 Beyer Speed Figure, fast enough to suggest she’s moved forward at age 3, but not so fast as to trigger regression in her next start.

Connections for the Risen Star’s second- and third-place finishers, Chunk of Gold and Built, haven’t set plans for their horses’ next race, but Ethan West, Chunk of Gold’s trainer, narrowed the possibilities to the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds or the Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway, both on March 22.

Trainer Steve Asmussen’s third win at Fair Grounds Saturday came with Hall of Fame, who captured the Grade 3, $250,000 Mineshaft Stakes by a head over Komorebino Omoide. It was the first stakes win for the improving 4-year-old. 

Not only did Magnitude run fast, but he recovered fast as well.

Magnitude, performing more like a 4-5 shot than the 43-1 chance that he was, blitzed the Risen Star Stakes early Saturday evening at Fair Grounds, scoring a front-running, 9 3/4-length victory while clocking 1:48.85. It was the fastest among seven Risen Stars since the race was extended from 1 1/16 miles to 1 1/8 miles in 2020, when the race attracted so many entries it was split into two divisions. 

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sunday’s eight-race live program at Aqueduct has been canceled due to forecasted high winds associated with a winter storm that was expected to bring day-long rain to the New York City metropolitan area on Sunday, the New York Racing Association announced Saturday afternoon.

The change to rain was expected to happen Saturday evening after approximately an inch of snow fell in the area Saturday afternoon.

Though temperatures on Sunday were forecasted to be in the low 50s, the winds were forecast between 20 to 30 miles per hour, according to weather.com.

Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., canceled its final five races on Saturday after extensive rainfall in the area. The track plans to race on Sunday and also is scheduled to race on Monday.

Oaklawn had canceled training Saturday morning due to the rainfall, but was able to race as scheduled. The horses were in the track’s indoor paddock for the sixth race – saddled and with riders by their sides – when a weather delay developed as the rains were raging outside.

With the Angels, winner of all four of her starts at 2 in 2024, returned to the work tab Saturday at Belmont Park going a half-mile in 51.75 seconds over the training track. 

With the Angels is preparing for a 3-year-old campaign that likely won’t begin until May or June, trainer Linda Rice said, owing in part to the lack of stakes for options for 3-year-old fillies in New York. The Bouwerie, for New York-breds, likely to be run at Saratoga during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival the first week of June, could be a possible spot for With the Angels. 

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The 3-year-old My Mitole is likely headed to a stakes race after winning a starter allowance Friday at Aqueduct by 5 1/4 lengths. 

While trainer Carlos Martin nominated My Mitole to the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes going one mile at Aqueduct on March 1, he is not enamored with the idea of wheeling him back in two weeks. Martin did mention the $500,000 Virginia Derby, a one-turn, 1 1/8-mile dirt race at Colonial Downs on March 15 as something that could be intriguing. 

Simply Joking, who has begun her career with two stakes wins and is an early Kentucky Oaks hopeful, was scratched from an intended start in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds. 

Her trainer, Whit Beckman, said in a text message that Simply Joking was off her feed Thursday. Blood tests returned Friday showed that Simply Joking was fighting an illness, which led to the scratch. 

“Caught it early but bad timing for sure,” Beckman said.