HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer Jinks Fires said Tuesday jockey Stewart Elliott will likely ride Gray Attempt in the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 13 with the horse’s last-race rider, Jon Court, committed to Long Range Toddy. 

Court was aboard Gray Attempt for a victory Saturday in the $125,000 Gazebo Stakes at Oaklawn. He was subbing for Shaun Bridgmohan, the regular rider of Gray Attempt who is recovering from injury. The Gazebo came a week after Court won a division of the Grade 2, $750,000 Rebel at Oaklawn with Long Range Toddy.

ARCADIA, Calif. - For a jockey who has never ridden the champion Game Winner in a race, Joe Talamo has developed a high level of expertise regarding the colt.

Talamo has frequently worked Game Winner, including a half-mile workout in 48.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Tuesday. The workout moved Game Winner closer to his second start of 2019 in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 6, a key prep for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 4.

Joel Rosario will ride Game Winner in the $1 million Santa Anita Derby.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Ransomed and Tyfosha, who have both spent time racing in Southern California, meet in Thursday’s featured eighth race at Oaklawn. The optional $16,000 claiming sprint for fillies and mares carries first-level allowance conditions. It will be run at six furlongs and it drew a field of 11.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Whitmore is gearing up for next month’s Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn Park.

He drilled five furlongs in 59.40 seconds on a fast track at Oaklawn on Saturday. It was his first move since winning the $150,000 Hot Springs Stakes by a length and a half March 9. In that race, Whitmore covered six furlongs in 1:09.39 on a good track, and his Beyer Speed Figure of 104 is the best number put up this meet at Oaklawn.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Gunmetal Gray, who won the Grade 3 Sham Stakes in January, will be sidelined until 2020 after undergoing surgery on Sunday for a non-displaced condylar fracture diagnosed after a workout at Santa Anita that morning.

Terry Finley, the president and chief executive of West Point Thoroughbreds, which co-owns the colt, wrote in a text message on Monday that the surgery “went well” and that Gunmetal Gray will be out of action “for at least nine months.”

Veterinarian Wayne McIlwraith conducted the operation, Finley said.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Friday’s 11-race program will serve as a nice prelude to Saturday’s 14-race Florida Derby Day card, with three stakes on the docket, including two Grade 3 events on the turf – the $100,000 Appleton at a mile, and the $100,000 Orchid at 1 3/8 miles for fillies and mares.

The $100,000 Skip Away, which lost its graded status this year, rounds out the stakes lineup.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Core Beliefs, who won his 2019 debut in the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap at Fair Grounds on Saturday, may not race again until the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 27.

Trainer Peter Eurton said on Monday that he would like to give Core Beliefs significant time between starts and would like to try the 4-year-old colt in longer races. The $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita is run at 1 1/4 miles.

“We could wait eight weeks,” Eurton said. “We want to keep him fresh.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Ian Wilkes had two options for Champagne Anyone’s next start: To stay local for Saturday’s Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks, or to wait a week and head to Keeneland for the Ashland.

That decision was made for Wilkes on Saturday morning at Palm Meadows when Champagne Anyone worked five furlongs in 1:01.20, the second-best of 30 works at the distance on the tab.

Jockey Adam Beschizza and trainer Brad Cox won hotly contested titles at the 2018-19 Fair Grounds meet that ended Sunday.

Beschizza won six races closing week and topped James Graham 82 wins to 76 for his first riding title. Freshly arrived from an English journeyman jockey’s career that was stuck in idle, Beschizza nearly won the 2017-18 Fair Grounds crown, losing 66-65 to Shaun Bridgmohan, but despite Graham hanging tough to the end during a surprisingly robust meet, Beschizza, the main rider for successful trainer Joe Sharp, came out on top.

INDIANTOWN GAP, Fla. – With cows mooing in the background and the mosquitos buzzing around the clocker stand, Fountain of Youth winner Code of Honor turned in his final prep for Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby on Monday, going four furlongs in 48.40 seconds shortly after dawn in the bucolic setting at Payson Park.