ARCADIA, Calif. – As Santa Anita settles into a three-day racing week at least through June 2, the two tracks with summer race meetings in Southern California – Los Alamitos and Del Mar – are planning longer race weeks.

Santa Anita announced last week that it will eliminate five Thursdays starting this week and continuing through the first four Thursdays of May. The meeting concludes June 23, and the status of racing on the Thursdays of June 6, 13, and 20 will be made next month, officials said. There was no racing on Thursday, May 30, on the original schedule.

Trainer Gustavo Delgado wants to run Bodexpress in the Kentucky Derby. So too Kenny McPeek with Signalman. Over there in the corner, that’s Mark Hennig waving his hand, saying he wants in, too, with Bourbon War. Trouble is, with less than a week to go until final entries are taken and posts drawn for the 145th Derby on May 4 at Churchill Downs, they are all on the outside looking in.

WHO’S HOT

The hot-stove debate regards who will be favored in this year’s Kentucky Derby. Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form’s national handicapper, has Game Winner slightly favored at 5-1, but with both Omaha Beach and Roadster right behind at 6-1, the margin obviously is razor thin between those three. Improbable, at 8-1, is the only other horse Watchmaker has in single digits. All four of those runners were based this winter at Santa Anita, and three of the four are trained by Bob Baffert.

The $5,000 claiming race that began Monday’s card at Laurel Park took only a minute and 38 seconds to complete, but jockey Jenn Miller had put in hundreds, if not thousands, of hours preparing for what was undoubtedly the biggest race of her life. And even though she finished second aboard Moneymeister, Miller walked away a huge winner.

When Golden Gate Fields unveiled plans for its Gold Rush Weekend, featuring eight stakes this weekend, it knew it was taking a big gamble.

By putting six stakes races, including the $250,000 Grade 3 San Francisco Mile, all on one day this Saturday instead of spreading them over the calendar, it weighed the option of one big day versus losing opportunities to highlight six separate days with stakes.

The track has lucked out in three ways even before entries were drawn this week.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Serengeti Empress passed two important tests Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs, working a sharp five furlongs in 58.09, then scoping cleanly, once returning to the barn, according to her trainer, Tom Amoss. As a result, she will now definitely be pointed for the Kentucky Oaks on May 3.

Racing continues in Ohio as Belterra Park in Cincinnati opens its live racing meet Friday and Thistledown in North Randall opens Monday. Belterra will get a running start to its season over the first two weekends of the meet, which both include stakes, with next weekend’s activity bolstered by a celebration of the Run for the Roses in neighboring Kentucky. The track continues through the summer with a stakes slate that showcases the Buckeye State’s breeding program.

Meanwhile, Thistledown will prepare to host graded stakes action and one of Ohio’s richest racing programs in June.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Kevin Attard said Shakopee Town exited her victory in Saturday’s Grade 3 Whimsical Stakes at Woodbine nicely and will be pointed to the Grade 3, $125,000 Hendrie Stakes over 6 1/2 furlongs here June 9.

A homebred owned by Minnesotans Al and Bill Ulwelling, Shakopee Town got a career-high 89 Beyer Speed Figure in the six-furlong Whimsical, which she won comfortably in her first non-dirt start, a few weeks after shipping in from Louisiana.

Anothertwistafate, currently 23rd on the points list for the Kentucky Derby on May 4, will bypass the race and point for the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, on May 18 at Pimlico, trainer Blaine Wright said Tuesday.

Anothertwistafate would have needed three defections from those above him on the list by Tuesday to make the 20-horse field for the Derby. Even if he hadn't made the top 20, he could have been entered as an also-eligible, as a maximum of four horses can be also-eligibles at entry time.

Scott Lake became the sixth trainer in Thoroughbred history to win 6,000 races Monday when the Pennsylvania-bred 3-year-old filly I’m the Talent won her debut in the fifth race at Parx Racing.

The other members of the 6,000 club are the late Dale Baird (9,445 wins), Steve Asmussen (8,404), Jerry Hollendorfer (7,596), the late Jack Van Berg (6,523), and King Leatherbury (6,501).