ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita is likely to run three-day race weeks through the end of the spring-summer meeting on June 23 and has extended a $10,000 per race increase in overnight purses through at least June 9, racing secretary Steve Lym said over the weekend.

Santa Anita began three-day racing weeks on April 26-28 because of concern over the availability of race-ready horses. At the time, track officials said the schedule would continue through June 2 and running on the first three Thursdays of June would be evaluated at a later date.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brad Cox hasn’t spent a whole lot of time in Maryland. Based primarily in the Midwest, the 39-year-old trainer has traveled to Pimlico twice, Laurel Park once, and the Timonium sales a few times. One of his most enduring memories – the crabcakes at Michael’s, the popular restaurant located right across York Road from the Timonium fairgrounds.

“Amazing,” Cox said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bob Baffert has implicit trust in his longtime assistant Jimmy Barnes, but the Hall of Fame trainer felt like it wouldn’t hurt anything to stop by Churchill Downs on his way to another Preakness just to check in on Improbable.

“I just wanted to make sure he’s still got a lot of energy and going over the ground really well,” Baffert said Monday morning after an easy half-mile breeze in 51.80 seconds by Improbable, the morning-line favorite for the 144th Preakness on Saturday at Pimlico in Baltimore. “He looks really healthy. He’s held his weight really well.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jockey Luis Saez has been suspended 15 racing days by Churchill Downs stewards for his ride in the Kentucky Derby aboard Maximum Security, who crossed the wire first before being disqualified for causing interference leaving the second turn of the race. Saez was cited for “failure to control his mount and make the proper effort to maintain a straight course,” the stewards cited in their ruling, which was released Monday on the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission website.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Roses for Laura and Acai won the first local races of 2019 for juveniles on Friday and Sunday and could meet in stakes later this summer.

Both fillies beat odds-on favorites in races at 4 1/2 furlongs.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Causeforcommotion, the winner of the Grade 3 Santa Barbara Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday, thrives in distance races on turf. That could lead to a journey outside of California this summer, trainer and co-owner Eric Kruljac said on Sunday.

Kruljac was debating Causeforcommotion’s next start on Sunday following her impressive win in the Santa Barbara Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf. Ridden by Geovanni Franco, Causeforcommotion was always near the front and pulled clear in the stretch to win by nine lengths.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Hunt, the winner of the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile and four other stakes, has been retired after a series of disappointing performances.

Trainer Phil D’Amato said on Sunday the decision was reached to retire Hunt after he finished seventh in an optional claimer at Santa Anita on April 28. He did not win in three starts this year.

“His form dropped off,” D’Amato said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Journeyman rider Iggy Puglisi rode his first winner since November 2017 in Sunday’s sixth race at Santa Anita aboard Bouncing Around in a $30,000 claimer for maidens.

For Puglisi, the win felt like so much more than a minor sprint.

“It’s been a long time,” he said as he left the winner’s circle. “I had tears in my eyes when I was pulling up. I feel like I’d won the Derby.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Don Warren, who trained the champion Acclamation earlier this decade, died early Thursday, Santa Anita’s publicity department announced on Friday.

Warren was 67 and had been in declining health in recent years, which led to his retirement from training in the summer of 2015.

“He had been taking pain medication for a degenerative back disease, which caused his kidneys to shut down,” Rhonda Schiewe, Warren’s sister, told Santa Anita publicity.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Gift Box, the winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on April 6, is nearing his second start of 2019 in the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 27 in peak form, trainer John Sadler said.

Saturday, Gift Box worked six furlongs in 1:13.60, a workout Sadler described as “sensational.”

Santa Anita’s main track has not produced quick workout times in recent weeks, which left Sadler impressed with Gift Box’s effort.