ARCADIA, Calif. – With the wet weather that compromised Santa Anita’s meeting now in the rearview mirror, new protocols put in place regarding horse welfare, and with the main track playing slow but safe, Santa Anita’s safety record over the past 3 1/2 weeks has greatly improved from earlier in the meet.

All-sources handle for Saturday’s Wood Memorial card at Aqueduct was $15,069,036, down 8.1 percent from the $16,404,782 handled on Wood Day 2018.

Ontrack handle Saturday was $2,020,189, down 2.6 percent from last year’s figure of $2,074,391.

Each card had 11 races, though there was only one turf race this year whereas there were two in 2018.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Vasilika, who won her fifth graded stakes in the last six months in Saturday’s Grade 2 Royal Heroine, has been nearly unbeatable at Santa Anita for more than a year.

Vasilika has won 10 of 11 starts at Santa Anita and is on a 10-race winning streak at the track.

Her next start is likely to come in the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf here for fillies and mares May 27.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Simon Callaghan thought Bellafina was exceptional when she was purchased for $800,000 at the Gulfstream sale of 2-year-olds in training last spring. She has proven him right.

In eight starts, Bellafina has won six graded stakes, the latest being the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks on Saturday, a comprehensive win that will make her the favorite in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 3.

“The filly is just the perfect filly,” Callaghan said on Sunday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mind Control came out of his 1 1/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Bay Shore Stakes in good order and will now target the Woody Stephens Stakes on the June 8 Belmont Stakes card. The Woody Stephens, run at seven furlongs, was elevated to Grade 1 status for the first time this year by the American Graded Stakes Committee.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Gift Box and McKinzie, separated by a nose in a thrilling running of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on Saturday, may see each other again soon.

Gift Box and McKinzie are candidates for the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 27, which, like the Big Cap, is run at 1 1/4 miles. Later this year, races such as the Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 17 and the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 2 could be on the schedules of the pair, who have emerged as the leading older horses in California.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though she has done more than enough to qualify for the Kentucky Oaks, Always Shopping is likely to skip that Grade 1, $1.25 million race at Churchill Downs and point to the Grade 2, $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico on May 17, owner Mike Repole said Sunday morning.

Roadster and Game Winner are in. On the Kentucky Derby front Sunday morning, that literally was yesterday’s news for trainer Bob Baffert, who now has his sights set on Saturday, when he’ll attempt to get his third starter in the May 4 Derby if Improbable can run well enough in the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park.

“Like Belichick would say,” Baffert said, mimicking Bill Belichick, the coach of the National Football League’s New England Patriots, “it’s on to Hot Springs.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Vekoma earned a 94 Beyer Speed Figure when securing a spot in the Kentucky Derby with his 3 1/2-length victory Saturday in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland and will return to light training here midweek, trainer George Weaver said Sunday.

“He is well and happy,” said Weaver, who left Sunday for South Florida but planned to return here within a few days.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It was with a tempered enthusiasm gleaned from a lifelong existence in racing that Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott spoke about Tacitus and the Kentucky Derby the morning following the colt’s impressive victory in Saturday’s Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Despite the fact Tacitus established himself as a leading contender for the $3 million Derby on May 4 by overcoming trouble on the first turn to win the Wood by 1 1/4 lengths, Mott knows there’s a ways to go between now and the first Saturday in May.