CYPRESS, Calif. – Aquila failed to live up to expectations as a colt, winning once in five starts and finishing sixth in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita in March.

Friday at Los Alamitos, Aquila will start as a gelding for the first time after a three-month layoff.

Trainer Simon Callaghan hopes Aquila can still develop into the prospect that led to his purchase for $685,000 at a 2-year-olds in training sale in 2017.

“We gave him a little time, and he’s come back good,” Callaghan said. “I think he’s more focused now.”

The New Mexico Racing Commission has announced the bronchodilator clenbuterol will now be regarded as a Class 3 controlled substance in the state in a move that enables criminal prosecution of horsemen found to be illegally in possession of the drug. The agency worked with the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy on the controlled substance designation, according to Izzy Trejo, executive director of the New Mexico Racing Commission.

Lone Star Park Handicap winner Shotgun Kowboy had been under consideration for Friday night’s Grade 3 Cornhusker at Prairie Meadows, but is bypassing the race to freshen for the Remington Park meet, according to his trainer, C.R. Trout.

Trout said Shotgun Kowboy is a candidate for Remington’s $175,000 Governor’s Cup on Sept. 30 and the $175,000 Oklahoma Classics Cup on Oct. 19. Shotgun Kowboy is a two-time winner of the Classics Cup, which is restricted to horses bred in Oklahoma.

Trainer Carl Allsop won with his first starter on Sunday at Laurel Park, when Antoaneta won a first-level allowance race on turf by a head. She paid $17.20.

Allsop works for Reid Nagle, who owns Big Lick Farm near Ocala, Fla., and keeps horses at the Braeburn Training Center in Virginia. Allsop is based at Braeburn.

It’s no secret Red Ruby has great potential. In three starts this year, she has scored open-length stakes victories in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico and the Martha Washington at Oaklawn Park. Once she swooped to the lead in upper stretch of the Black-Eyed Susan, the race, for all practical purposes, was over.

But it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows for Red Ruby, and trainer Kellyn Gorder has had to be patient and adjust her schedule on the fly.

Fresh from a big closing weekend of the Churchill meet, Steve Asmussen will be casting a larger presence than ever before this summer at Ellis. Although his top horses will be active later this month at Saratoga, where he will actually be spending most of his time, the Hall of Fame trainer not only has about 80 horses in the care of assistant Mitch Dennison at Ellis, but also has reserves to call on at Churchill.

It’s been nearly three years since Saham posted his last victory, but the 6-year-old horse looks like he has found a spot to end the drought as the favorite in the Friday feature at Ellis Park in western Kentucky.

Saham was an up-and-coming 3-year-old when he won the Grade 3 Jefferson Cup on Sept. 26, 2015, on the Churchill turf. But while he has been remarkably consistent, never finishing worse than fourth in his last 11 starts, he has somehow remained winless since.

A second bizarre incident in an eight-month period involving a maiden named Good Offense has led to the voluntary retirement of the 3-year-old gelding.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Chief Cicatriz, whose 110 Beyer Speed Figure from the June 2 Aristides at Churchill Downs is the highest so far this year in North America at a sprint distance, could be headed to Del Mar later this month, according to trainer Shawn Davis.

Possible races for him there include the July 28 Bing Crosby, a Win and You’re In event toward the BC Sprint, and the Aug. 25 Pat O’Brien, a Win and You’re In event toward the BC Dirt Mile.

Gulfstream Park reported that it set records for average and total handle at its spring meeting, which began April 4 and concluded Saturday with the Summit of Speed card.

Gulfstream reported total handle for the spring meet was $334 million, up $22 million over 2017 despite six fewer days of racing. Total handle during the spring meet has climbed approximately $88 million since 2015, the track said.

Average daily handle topped $6.3 million, up about $1 million from 2017 and $2.1 million since 2015.