J B Strikes Back, the former maiden claimer who scored an upset win in the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, will miss the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 25 in favor of a California-based campaign, trainer Doug O’Neill said.

“It was coming back too quick,” O’Neill said of the decision to skip the $3 million Pegasus World Cup. He also cited cross-country travel for a reason to keep J B Strikes Back in California.

O’Neill said the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on March 1 is a possibility.

Johannes, a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf horse of 2024, has been sidelined with a minor injury, trainer Tim Yakteen said on Friday.

“We’ve run into some bone bruising,” Yakteen said. “We’ve always put the horse first, as we do all our horses.

“We’ll give him a little bit of a break and set him up for his summer campaign.”

Yakteen said he received the diagnosis from veterinarians on Friday. The setback ends plans to take Johannes to Gulfstream Park for the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational on Jan. 25.

Turfway Park has had to scrap a third consecutive scheduled day of racing this week following lingering effects from a major winter storm early in the week in Kentucky, and with more snow expected in the coming hours.

The Chosen Vron, the 2023 California-bred Horse of the Year, and the Cal-bred fillies and mares Chancery Way, Chismosa, and Grand Slam Smile, all five-time stakes winners who raced as recently as November, are notable absentees from Saturday’s California Cup program at Santa Anita.

All are expected to resume racing later this year.

Santa Anita has postponed Friday’s program to Thursday,  Jan. 16 because of concern over air quality caused by massive wildfires in Los Angeles County, the track announced on Thursday.

The 10-race program scheduled for Friday will be conducted without being redrawn, according to track general manager Nate Newby.

“The [California Horse Racing Board] has given us approval to move the card as is,” Newby said in an interview. “It’s going to be a 10-race program starting at noon.”

Aqueduct’s eight-race Thursday card has been canceled due to a forecast that calls for strong winds, the New York Racing Association announced early Wednesday night.

According to the National Weather Service, Thursday’s forecast calls for sunny skies with a high near 34 degrees but winds between 21 and 25 miles per hour with gusts as high as 39 mph. This is the first cancellation of the winter meet.

Aqueduct will be open for simulcasting on Thursday.

Racing is expected to resume Friday with an eight-race card that begins at 12:40 p.m.

Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., has canceled racing for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday due to continued freezing temperatures and impending severe weather, said Jason Milligan, the track’s vice president of racing operations. The announcement was made Wednesday afternoon.

Milligan said the Pippin Stakes that was to have been run Saturday will now be held next Sunday. It will be redrawn and is open to original nominees.

Santa Anita canceled training on Wednesday because of gusty winds that caused damage to the roof of at least one barn and fueled a terrifying wildfire in the adjacent cities of Altadena and Pasadena, Calif., that was visible from the track.

The fire, which was not an immediate threat to the racetrack property, officials said, had zero containment as of late Wednesday morning and had spread to more than 10,600 acres, damaging scores of homes and businesses in the Altadena and Pasadena areas, according to Los Angeles media.