HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Despite his fourth-place finish as the 6-5 choice in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on March 2, Hidden Scroll was pegged the 5-2 morning-line favorite in a field of 11 3-year-olds drawn Wednesday for the $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. The Grade 1 Florida Derby highlights a 14-race program Saturday that includes six other stakes and will offer a mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6 pool, with a carryover of more than $3 million if the jackpot is not hit Thursday or Friday.

With three nights remaining at Turfway Park’s winter/spring meet, Cipriano Contreras and Wesley Ward are tied at the top of the trainer standings with 13 wins apiece. Contreras has two entries Thursday at Turfway and one on Saturday, while Ward has a pair of entries for Friday night.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Because of its five-horse field on a card that has several stakes with short fields, Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita has been postponed from Saturday to Sunday, racing officials said on Wednesday.

The remaining four stakes Saturday had small fields as of late Wednesday morning. The Grade 3 Santa Ana Stakes, the Grade 1 Kilroe Mile, and the Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes each had six entrants, while the Grade 1 Beholder Mile had seven entrants.

As Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., prepares to bring its winter/spring meet to a close on Saturday, track officials at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., have begun gearing up for their track’s opening next week, when Keeneland will run nine stakes over four days.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita will resume racing Friday for the first time since March 3 after a tumultuous month in which the main track underwent inspection and renovation and several policy changes were enacted following 22 equine fatalities since late December that drew nationwide attention.

The implementation of some of the changes was being discussed by track officials as late as Tuesday prior to a formal review by the California Horse Racing Board at its monthly meeting Thursday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Martin Garcia will have his first mount since November in Friday’s eighth race at Santa Anita when he rides Mr Classical in a maiden claimer.

Garcia has not ridden since November at Del Mar because of a shoulder injury. He resumed exercising horses at Santa Anita last Saturday.

Mr Classical, trained by Doug O’Neill, is Garcia’s lone mount on Friday’s eight-race program.

ARCADIA, Calif. – True Valour, the winner of the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 9, will miss Saturday’s Grade 1 Kilroe Mile because of an injury.

Trainer Simon Callaghan said in a text message on Wednesday that True Valour “had a minor setback and will have 60 days off.”

Owned by Qatar Racing, True Valour, 5, won his third stakes and his first in the United States in the Thunder Road Stakes at a mile on turf. True Valour has had four starts with Callaghan since he was imported from Ireland last summer.

ARCADIA, Calif. – In the stretch of the Unusual Heat Turf Classic at Santa Anita on Jan. 26, Marckie’s Water was losing touch with the leaders rapidly. The 5-2 second choice, Marckie’s Water finished last of 10, 8 3/4 lengths behind race winner Rye.

Not long after the race, Marckie’s Water was diagnosed with a breathing problem, an entrapped epiglottis that required surgery.

“Last time, he had an excuse,” trainer Richard Baltas said this week.

The first time Shug McGaughey ran horses in the Kentucky Derby, he was all of 33 years old and on the fast track to what has proven to be a Hall of Fame career. He was hoping a Derby win would come quickly, “to get it over with,” as he put it this week.

But it took another 29 years for McGaughey to finally tick off that box and get a Derby win, with Orb in 2013. And the wait – which included a runner-up finish by Easy Goer in 1989 – made it all the sweeter, he said.

“I think it made me appreciate it that much more,” McGaughey said on a national teleconference.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jack Van Berg, a 3-year-old colt named for the late Hall of Fame trainer, could go favored in Friday’s sixth race at Oaklawn Park. The optional $62,500 claiming race for 3-year-olds carries first-level allowance conditions. It will be run at six furlongs.

Jack Van Berg contested the pace and finished second at the same level and distance in his last start March 10. He was cutting back from a sixth-place finish going 1 1/16 miles here. Jermaine Bridgmohan has the mount for Muddy Waters Stables and trainer Tom Van Berg.