Hall of Fame horseman King Leatherbury won’t be training this winter and Laurel Park has named an April stakes in his honor – but don’t assume he is retiring.

“I’ve heard the rumors, but there’s nothing official,” Leatherbury said. “I won’t make any decisions until the spring.”

Leatherbury, 85, has been racing horses since 1958 and is the fifth-winningest trainer of all time in North America, with 6,501 victories. He was the nation’s leading trainer by wins in 1976 and 1977 and won at least 200 races for 11 years in a row from 1974 to 1984.

Maryland jockey Weston Hamilton’s five-pound apprentice weight allowance expired Dec. 22, but it shouldn’t slow him much. He’s looked like a journeyman for a long time now.

Hamilton, 20, made good use of his apprenticeship, winning 126 races – eight in 2017 and 118 this year. He has mount earnings in 2018 of $3.4 million and is a cinch to be named an Eclipse Awards finalist for apprentice rider.

“I would love to win it,” Hamilton said. “It’s been one of my goals all year long. I try not to think about it too much.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Two years after El Areeb dominated the Jerome Stakes by 11 1/2 lengths, his trainer, Cal Lynch, is back with another promising colt he hopes can take him a little farther down the Triple Crown trail.

Lynch is bringing Our Braintrust to Aqueduct from Maryland for Tuesday’s $150,000 Jerome, the first race in 2019 for 3-year-olds that offers qualifying points to the May 4 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Name Changer, winner of the $125,000 Queens County Stakes on Dec. 22, will likely get a brief freshening and point to the $1 million Charles Town Classic on April 20, trainer Alan Goldberg said Thursday.

Name Changer held Monongahela at bay by a half-length in the Queens County for his fourth win from six starts in 2018 and eighth from 17 overall. He carried 126 pounds, the first horse to win the Queens County under such an impost since Cox’s Ridge in 1977.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Lucrative races such as the $9 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 26 and the $12 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on March 30 are possible targets for McKinzie after the 3-year-old colt’s sharp win in Wednesday’s Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita.

McKinzie, the 6-5 favorite in a field of 13, closed from 10th to win the $303,105 Malibu Stakes at seven furlongs by a comprehensive 4 3/4 lengths under jockey Mike Smith. He earned a 103 Beyer Speed Figure for the victory.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Attendance and handle figures showed growth on Wednesday’s opening-day program compared to the corresponding day in 2017.

Attendance was 41,373, compared to 40,023 on a Tuesday in 2017, the track announced. The 2016 opening-day crowd was 46,514.

Wednesday’s all-sources handle reached an opening-day record $20,491,016, although the track ran 10 races, one more than in past years. The all-sources handle on opening day in 2017 was $17.2 million. In 2016, all-sources handle on opening day was $18.3 million.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There are a lot of variables involved when it comes to winning a stakes race. But there is one that matters a little more than most when it comes to winning Saturday’s $100,000 Allen Jerkens – who can stay the distance.

The Allen Jerkens is unique in the fact it is one of the few stakes races decided at two miles throughout the United States during the course of the season. Despite the grueling distance, there was no lack of interest in the race when entries were drawn here Wednesday. The race lured a full field of 13 long-winded (hopefully) competitors.

ARCADIA, Calif. - In early summer, after Princess Warrior lost her eighth consecutive race, trainer Ken McPeek took drastic action. He took the filly off the anti-bleeder medication Lasix.

He also moved her to turf, and those changes led to rapid success. Princess Warrior won her first start without Lasix in an allowance race on turf at Ellis Park in July. Since then, Princess Warrior has started only in stakes, including a win in the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere Stakes at Churchill Downs on Nov. 23.

ARCADIA, Calif. – An unspecified setback will preclude the exciting 2-year-old colt Flying Scotsman from running Friday in the $75,000 Eddie Logan Stakes at Santa Anita, a mile turf race in which he would have been heavily favored.

“He has a small problem and we’re not going to be able to run,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said early Wednesday morning. “I’m going to have to scratch.”

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European jockey Andrea Atzeni, a rising international star, will relocate to California for early winter, adding depth to a Santa Anita colony already strengthened by the return of East Coast jockey Joel Rosario.

Atzeni, 27, was scheduled to arrive Thursday from England, where he is among the country’s leading riders and was the regular jockey for multiple Group 1 winner Postponed. Atzeni, who has won more than two dozen Group 1 races, will make his Santa Anita debut on Friday.