The smile that has been a seemingly permanent fixture on trainer Chad Brown’s face throughout April at Keeneland, as his barn continues a strong meet and he prepares juvenile champion Good Magic for the Kentucky Derby, slipped for just an instant.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Monomoy Girl sharpened up for her upcoming engagement in the Kentucky Oaks when breezing a half-mile in company on a cold but pleasant Saturday morning at Churchill Downs.

Working outside of her Brad Cox stablemate Compass Zone during the exclusive training period (7:30-7:45 a.m. Eastern) being reserved daily for Kentucky Derby and Oaks horses, Monomoy Girl went in 47.40 seconds, with a five-furlong gallop-out of 59.80. Florent Geroux, her regular rider, was aboard.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The unbeaten and lightly raced Justify, the current favorite for the Kentucky Derby on May 5, turned in his penultimate drill for the race early Saturday morning at Santa Anita, officially going six furlongs in 1:13 after breaking off at the five-furlong pole.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Hawkish was a strong allowance winner going a mile on turf at Aqueduct on April 15, and trainer Jimmy Toner is eager to see how the 3-year-old son of Artie Schiller will do going longer.

Thus, Toner plans to run Hawkish in the Grade 3, $200,000 Pennine Ridge at 1 1/8 miles at Belmont on June 2.

“I don’t see any reason why he couldn’t stretch out,” Toner said Friday at Belmont. “I’d like to find out, anyway. He was just awesome last week. He’s a good horse.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The veteran New York-bred gelding Kharafa will make his 9-year-old debut in the $125,000 Elusive Quality Stakes next Saturday at Belmont Park, trainer Tim Hills said.

It will be the third straight year that Kharafa will begin his campaign in the Elusive Quality. He finished second behind Disco Partner last year and fifth behind A Lot in 2016. Hills said he is using the Elusive Quality as a stepping-stone to the Kingston Stakes for New York-breds on May 28.

Kharafa has won 12 races, including seven stakes, from 45 starts and has earned $1.1 million.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The debut winners Retonova and A True Giant seem to have found a relatively soft spot to make their stakes debuts – and second career starts – in Sunday’s $100,000 Times Square division of the New York Stallion Series on closing-day at Aqueduct.

Retonova, trained by Chris Englehart, broke a step slowly but got a patient ride from Trevor McCarthy and pulled away to win by four lengths at odds of 10-1 on March 17. Englehart said Retonova had shown potential in the morning, but he wasn’t expecting a first-out victory.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Xten, a 3-year-old maiden colt, was euthanized on Friday after being involved in an apparent collision during a workout that led to the cancellation of training on the main track.

Trainer Tim Yakteen said on Friday afternoon that Xten was found to be suffering from neurological issues and could not be saved.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Favorable weather and large fields led to a sharp increase in all-sources handle at California’s racetracks in the first three months of the year.

Handle for the year surpassed $764 million through March, a gain of 11.85 percent from the corresponding period in 2017 for Thoroughbred meetings at Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields, the nighttime harness meeting at Sacramento, and the nighttime mixed meeting at Los Alamitos, according to figures released at Thursday’s California Horse Racing Board meeting.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Giant Expectations, a winner of two graded stakes in the last year, has been taken out of training for the spring with soundness issues in his hind end.

Trainer Peter Eurton said on Friday that Giant Expectations will miss five or six weeks of training. The setback will prevent Giant Expectations from starting in two leading races for older horses on dirt at Santa Anita – the Grade 2 Californian Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on April 28 and the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 26.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With one Kentucky Derby win already in his pocket, Vinnie Viola will be playing with house money when he returns to Churchill Downs in two weeks as the owner, with Mike Repole, of Vino Rosso, one of three leading Derby contenders trainer Todd Pletcher worked at the Palm Beach Downs training center Friday morning.