WHO’S HOT

LEXINGTON, Ky. – When Fuel the Bern goes postward as one of the favorites in the last race Friday, trainer Danny Gargan hopes the 5-year-old horse will be the first of many winners this spring in his native Kentucky.

Gargan enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2018 when based primarily in New York, winning 56 races and nearly $2.7 million in purses. He now has a division of 24 horses at Keeneland.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Monomoy Girl will not make her 4-year-old debut in the May 3 La Troienne Stakes at Churchill as had been hoped.

The filly “came off the van colicky” upon returning March 27 to Churchill from her winter base at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, said trainer Brad Cox.

“We pretty much sent her straight away to the clinic.”

Monomoy Girl was treated for dehydration for several days at Rood and Riddle in Lexington. She is resting at WinStar Farm and is expected back at Churchill by the end of April.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Batting over .500 is virtually impossible in baseball and in horse racing, at least in the long term. Still, the occasional hot streak will take a hitter or horse trainer into the stratosphere and get fans’ tongues wagging.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen said on Tuesday he plans to have a division of horses at the Louisiana Downs meet that opens May 4.

Asmussen, who has not been stabled during a meet at the Bossier City track in years, won last year’s Grade 3, $300,000 Super Derby there with Limation.

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HOT SPRINGS, Ark.– Midnight Bisou and Long Range Toddy both remain on pace for upcoming Grade 1 races at Oaklawn Park after emerging from significant workouts in good order, trainer Steve Asmussen said Tuesday.

Midnight Bisou is on deck for the $750,000 Apple Blossom Handicap on April 14 while Long Range Toddy is targeting the $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 13. Each is coming off a Grade 2 win at Oaklawn, with Midnight Bisou winning the Azeri and Long Range Toddy the first division of the Rebel.

The horses worked early Monday, on a fast track at Oaklawn.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The defection of Noble Commander from the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, to be run Saturday, softens the pace scenario and could put comebacker Prime Attraction loose on the lead in the 1 1/4-mile race.

Noble Commander would have run in the Big Cap when it was originally scheduled on March 9, but after racing was suspended and the Big Cap postponed to April 6, trainer Phil D’Amato shipped him to Keeneland. Noble Commander is nominated to the Grade 3, $200,000 Ben Ali at 1 1/8 miles there on April 13.

ARCADIA, Calif. – If the 2019 Breeders’ Cup remains at its designated site of Santa Anita, all roads lead back home for Secret Spice, whose decisive victory in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile on Saturday stamped her the leader of the California distaff division.

And though Secret Spice could make her next start on the road, the goal is to finish the season right where it began.

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ARCADIA, Calif. – The California Horse Racing Board has called a meeting for April 12 to discuss the potential of moving racing days away from Santa Anita this spring.

The scheduled meeting was announced Tuesday, the day California U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein wrote a letter to racing board chairman Chuck Winner calling for the suspension of racing until “the cause or causes” of 23 equine fatalities since late December “can be fully investigated.”

Speaking Tuesday evening in a telephone interview, Winner declined to comment on Feinstein’s letter.

Due to less weather-related cancellations, all-sources handle at Aqueduct’s 2018-19 winter meet was up 14.2 percent, but average daily handle was basically flat compared to the corresponding time period from the previous winter, according to figures released Tuesday by the New York Racing Association.

From Dec. 7, 2018 through Sunday, all-sources handle on Aqueduct’s races was $335,521,091, compared to $293,795,129 from Dec. 8, 2017 through March 31, 2018.

Average daily handle this winter was $5,592,018, up 0.9 percent from the previous winter’s figure of $5,543,304.