This much is certain: Good Samaritan returns to trainer Bill Mott’s stable at Payson Park in Florida for the near term. Beyond that, the horizon is clear for Good Samaritan, who has all sorts of options in coming months after winning his 4-year-old debut Saturday in the Grade 2, $400,000 New Orleans Handicap.

Anyone needing further affirmation that, at least for the spring, Synchrony is one of the best middle-distance horses in North America got it on Saturday in the Muniz Memorial Handicap.

Synchrony had returned from a long layoff with scintillating score Feb. 17 in the Fair Grounds Handicap, which produced a career-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure. In the Grade 2, $300,000 Muniz, Synchrony fully validated that performance, winning by 1 3/4 lengths in a deeper, stronger field, and getting another career-best Beyer of 101.

Shotgun Kowboy was a powerful allowance winner Friday at Oaklawn, and he could be returning to stakes company for his next start. Trainer C.R. Trout said the horse is a candidate for the Grade 3, $200,000 Steve Sexton Mile on May 6 at Lone Star Park.

“It won’t hurt him having 30 days,” Trout said of the time between starts for Shotgun Kowboy.

Shotgun Kowboy earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 92 for his win Friday. He set a pressured pace, disposed of his rival, and went on to a 2 1/2-length win, covering 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:42.93.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The tradition-rich Grade 3 Smile Sprint has lost its Win and You’re In status for the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, Breeders’ Cup senior vice president of racing and nominations Dora Delgado confirmed Monday.

This comes despite 2017 winner Imperial Hint finished second in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Delgado explained that no Grade 3 races except those for 2-year-olds will be considered for Win and You’re In status beginning this year. The six-furlong Smile was downgraded from a Grade 2 to a Grade 3 in 2017.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Saturday’s Florida Derby card is expected to feature the return of last year’s winner, Always Dreaming, in the $300,000 Gulfstream Park Mile. Trainer Todd Pletcher said he still had to discuss the options with his owners, but felt the Gulfstream Mile was the ideal place to launch the reigning Kentucky Derby champion’s 4-year-old campaign.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Stanley Gold is the first to admit Blonde Bomber has been a disappointment in her first two starts of the year.

Blonde Bomber, who ran a respectable third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last November, finished fourth in the Silverbulletday Stakes at Fair Grounds and fifth in the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa to begin her 3-year-old campaign.

Gold will give Blonde Bomber one more chance to show she belongs in a race like the Kentucky Oaks this spring when she runs in Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks at Gulfstream Park.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Mark Casse has a theory he firmly believes in when it comes to horses on the Kentucky Derby trail.

“I’ve always said it doesn’t matter what you do in December, January and February, it’s what you do now that matters most,” said Casse, who is hoping his Mississippi will be the “now” horse when he makes his stakes debut later this week in the $1 million Florida Derby.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A field of nine 3-year-olds now seems likely when entries are drawn for the $1 million Florida Derby late Wednesday morning following a busy weekend of workouts throughout the South Florida area.

Trainer Todd Fincher on Monday was making shipping plans for Runaway Ghost, who is headed to the Kentucky Derby after picking up 50 eligibility points Sunday via his 2 3/4-length victory in the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby.

“I’ve been talking to Chip Woolley to see if he’ll drive him up there,” Fincher deadpanned Monday. “If that doesn’t work we’ll just fly him up there.”

Woolley famously vanned Mine That Bird to Churchill Downs off a fourth-place finish in the Sunland Derby in 2009. The horse would go on to upset the Kentucky Derby at 50-1.

The Player, the 5-year-old horse who suffered fractured sesamoids Saturday in the New Orleans Handicap at Fair Grounds, went into surgery late Monday morning at the Louisiana State University Equine Medical Facility in an attempt to save his life.

Trainer Buff Bradley said the complex surgery was scheduled to take about six hours and that more would be known about the prospects for survival sometime later in the day. Dr. Charles McCauley headed the surgical team.

“We’ll know more when Dr. McCauley lets us know,” Bradley said.