Delta Downs put on a special afternoon program last Thursday, Jan. 3, and betting on the 10-race card from all sources was more than $2.5 million, a meet high, according to the track’s director of racing, Chris Warren.

Delta made the call to switch to the afternoon post eight days in advance, after Warren noticed there were few tracks putting on daytime cards a few days removed from the New Year’s holiday. He received commission approval for the switch. The decision for the daytime post was made prior to entries being taken for Jan. 3.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dale Romans celebrated a milestone Saturday when Caroline Lois gave him the 2,000th victory of his training career. But Romans hopes that will just be the tip of the iceberg for him during the Gulfstream Park Championship meeting.

The Romans stable appears loaded and primed for another big winter with such promising 3-year-olds stabled locally as Admire, Blue Steel, and Come On Gerry, along with a number of already established older stars including Mr Freeze, Hollywood Star, and Coach Rocks. Most of them breezed here Sunday and Monday.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Jonathan Thomas figures to be in the thick of Wednesday’s $52,000 optional claiming feature at Gulfstream Park when he sends out Dominance and Escapade, two of the leading candidates in the five-furlong turf dash.

Both had modest two-race win streaks snapped in their previous start, with Dominance finishing fifth in the Lightning City Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs and Escapade taking second, beaten a neck, under allowance conditions at Gulfstream Park West in his 2018 finale.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Catholic Boy may be temporarily out of sight, but he’s obviously not out of mind after the versatile two-time Grade 1 winner was named last Saturday as one of three finalists for an Eclipse Award in the 3-year-old division for 2018.

Catholic Boy, who won both the Belmont Derby on turf and the Travers on dirt at 3, was given some well-deserved time off at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, Fla., following his 13th-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Six Shooter and jockey Tommy Pompell were gutsy winners of the $75,000 Big Drama on Saturday night at Delta Downs, slipping through a seam along the rail en route to a 1 1/4-length victory in the stakes for 3-year-olds.

“Tommy said I owed him riding boots – he scraped his on the rail,” joked Paul Holthus, who trains Six Shooter.

Holthus said Monday that Six Shooter is now a candidate for the $150,000 Smarty Jones for 3-year-olds at Oaklawn. The one-mile race will be run on the opening-day card Jan. 25.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Nolo Contesto, the winner of a maiden special weight race for 3-year-olds at a mile last Friday at Santa Anita, may run next in the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes on Feb. 2.

Nolo Contesto, sent off at 8-5, finished a half-length in front of even-money favorite Omaha Beach after the two dueled through the stretch. Nolo Contesto ran a mile in 1:37.49, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 80.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Bellafina’s easy win in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes at Santa Anita on Sunday has put her on a path toward the Santa Anita Oaks.

The win, her fourth in a graded stakes, helped soften the disappointment of a fourth-place finish as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs on Nov. 2, her only loss in five stakes starts.

Jockey Joe Bravo, a winner of more than 5,000 races, plans to winter at the Oaklawn Park meet, which opens on Jan. 25, according to his agent, Tony King.

Bravo is currently based at Fair Grounds.

King said Bravo has stakes engagements at Fair Grounds on Jan. 19. He also said the rider is scheduled to team with True Timber in the $9 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational on Jan. 26 at Gulfstream Park.

True Timber is coming off a runner-up finish to Patternrecognition in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile. Bravo was aboard for Calumet Farm and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.

It was only a Louisiana-bred second-level allowance race, but the manner of Givemeaminit’s victory on Saturday at Fair Grounds makes trainer Dallas Stewart wonder if he’s found Givemeaminit’s hole card.

Trainers Al Stall and Dallas Stewart both grew up in the New Orleans area. They winter at Fair Grounds, send their stables to Kentucky in the spring, and run a string at Saratoga over the summer. The common thread of their racing existence spun through this past weekend, too, as Stewart worked Seeking the Soul on Saturday and Stall on Sunday put Tom’s d’Etat through a half-mile drill.

The two horses will share a flight on Jan. 22 from New Orleans to South Florida before lining up together in the Gulfstream Park starting gate Jan. 26 in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup.