ARCADIA, Calif. – The reopening of San Luis Rey Downs in Bonsall, Calif., which sustained widespread damage in a wildfire on Dec. 7, has been delayed until April 1 to allow construction of 250 temporary stalls and permit the offtrack training center to receive daily compensation from a stabling fund.

Tim Ritvo, the chief operating officer of The Stronach Group, which owns San Luis Rey Downs and Santa Anita, said last month that some stalls would be available at San Luis Rey Downs as early as this week, with full capacity set for the spring.

Monmouth Park will run six more stakes this year than in 2017 and has boosted its stakes schedule by $615,000. In all, Monmouth plans to hold 39 stakes at its 52-day meet, worth a total of $4.34 million.

The improved stakes schedule comes on the heels of the Jersey Shore track’s Jan. 23 announcement that it will offer owner and trainer participation bonuses this year, will continue to provide free workers’ compensation insurance for employees of trainers stabled at Monmouth, and will keep its stable area open later than usual, to Oct. 31.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - A pair of Woodbine turf stakes, the Highlander Stakes and the Summer Stakes, have been upgraded to Grade 1 status for the 2018 season by the Jockey Club of Canada.

The Highlander Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and upward that typically is run as part of the Queen’s Plate undercard, and the Summer Stakes, a one-turn mile for 2-year-olds, were both Grade 2 events last season. Last season, the Highlander offered a fees-paid berths into the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, and the Summer to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Game Over, scratched from the Fred Hooper Stakes last Saturday, will be turned out for about 90 days and gelded after recently coming up with a foot issue, according to owner Ron Paolucci.

Game Over, runner-up in the West Virginia Derby last August, has not raced since finishing fourth in the Sept. 23 Pennsylvania Derby. The 4-year-old Mineshaft colt had been training forwardly at Gulfstream West for Jorge Navarro.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The first chance for Jordan’s Henny to show her 59-1 upset at Gulfstream last Saturday in the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie was no fluke will come in the Grade 2 Inside Information here March 17, said trainer Mike Tomlinson.

“I knew she’d be a price, but not that big,” said Tomlinson. “It was a great day, a lot of fun. The filly ran extremely well and came out of it in great shape. I know her Beyers might have been a little low, but she ran in some very tough company last year.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Terry Finley grew up near Philadelphia as an ardent fan of the local NFL team, so of course he’ll be at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Sunday when the Eagles face New England in Super Bowl LII. One minor hitch: He won’t be at Gulfstream Park on Saturday to watch Untamed Domain begin his 3-year-old campaign for West Point Thoroughbreds in the Dania Beach Stakes.

“I’ll have to watch on my phone,” said Finley, the West Point president.

ARCADIA, Calif. – For nearly two years, from late 2014 through the summer of 2016, trainer Keith Desormeaux enjoyed the finest stretch of his career, winning four Grade 1, seven-figure races.

The stable had one of the most prominent 3-year-olds of 2016 in Exaggerator, who won the $1,000,690 Santa Anita Derby, $1.5 million Preakness, and $1,015,000 Haskell Invitational. Two years earlier, Texas Red won the $1.84 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita.

“That was a nice run,” Desormeaux reflected recently. “I hope it’s not the end. I’m optimistic.”

Trainer Steve Asmussen worked six stakes-bound 3-year-olds five furlongs on Monday at Fair Grounds, but where and when those races come remains up in the air, Asmussen said Tuesday.

It was bound to happen sometime. The 3-year-old colt Givemeaminit, in his seventh try, finally won a horse race.

Six losses to start his career didn’t signify a lack of talent – not at all. But after finishing second to subsequent Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes winner Sporting Chance while making his career debut in a Saratoga maiden race last summer, Givemeaminit went on to contest three Grade 1 races and a Grade 2. He was third, beaten a neck, in the Hopeful and fourth of 12 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Monomoy Girl breezed five furlongs in 1:00 on Monday at Fair Grounds, the fastest of 55 such works that morning, and appears to be progressing rapidly toward her 3-year-old debut in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Feb. 17 at Fair Grounds.

Monomoy Girl figures to be favored in that race, and after winning three of her four starts at age 2, her lone loss a neck defeat to Road to Victory in a fast edition of the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs, Monomoy Girl rates as an early Kentucky Oaks favorite.