LEXINGTON, Ky. – Trainer Mark Casse was looking around for wood to knock on in the Keeneland winner’s circle after La Cara won the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes Monday to move on to the Kentucky Oaks. The win came a little more than a week after the Casse-trained Sandman won the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby to punch his ticket to the Kentucky Derby.  

“The Arkansas Derby last week, the Ashland this week – pinch me,” Casse said. “I never take anything for granted. I love it, and this has been my life. It’s just great.”  

Undefeated Eclipse Award champion Immersive, who was given time off due to bone bruising, recently returned to trainer Brad Cox's barn at Churchill Downs.

Immersive last raced while winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in November, capping an undefeated championship campaign in which she won three Grade 1 races. In early January, owner-breeder Godolphin announced that the filly had been sidelined.

Average daily handle on Santa Anita’s races rose 6 percent at the 49-day winter-spring meeting from Dec. 26 through Sunday compared to the corresponding season last year, according to figures compiled by Daily Racing Form.

The track ran 478 races during the meeting, compared to 417 at the 2023-2024 winter-spring meeting. There were three more days of racing this year than last year, largely because of less rain on racing days this year.

Book’em Danno, who made a successful 4-year-old debut winning an overnight handicap at Colonial Downs on March 14, is being pointed toward the Grade 1, $1 million Churchill Downs, a seven-furlong race on the Kentucky Derby undercard.

“The timing is good after his race which, even though it was only a three-horse field, he ran a big number and I didn’t want to run him back quick,” trainer Derek Ryan said Monday. “This is [seven] weeks, he’s run well fresh, the distance is good, and the prize money isn’t bad.”

If the opening week was any indication, the battle for top jockey honors during the spring-summer meet should be a good one. Three riders – Paco Lopez, perennial leader Edgard Zayas, and Miguel Vasquez – are currently deadlocked atop the standings with six wins apiece over the first four days of the session, with Leonel Reyes right behind with five victories.