A fierce battle atop the trainer standings has unfolded at the 2017-18 meet, with Kathleen O’Connell maintaining a 32-30 lead over Gerald Bennett, the perennial local kingpin who has steadily chipped away at the margin in recent weeks. Into Wednesday, Bennett had sent out 163 starters to O’Connell’s 136.

Among jockeys, Antonio Gallardo continues to lead Daniel Centeno by a 77-67 margin, with Samy Camacho emerging as a clear-cut third with 50 wins.

Trainer Forrest Kaelin and his wife, Betty, have wintered off and on in Tampa since 1956, when the track was known as Sunshine Park and Forrest was still a jockey. The couple enjoyed quite a sentimental victory here Sunday when My Monkey captured the fifth race, for maiden claimers, at an $18 mutuel.

My Monkey, a dark bay 3-year-old filly, is named in honor of the couple’s late granddaughter Ashley King, who died at age 32 in a car crash in Louisiana six years ago. Another granddaughter, Brittany King, bred the filly.

Imperial Hint will make his eagerly awaited return to action Sunday as the marquee name among six statebred races that make up the 16th annual Florida Cup at Tampa Bay Downs.

Hyndford’s stock rose Saturday while the 3-year-old stood in his stall at trainer Todd Pletcher’s winter quarters, Palm Beach Downs in South Florida. Hyndford in his most recent start Feb. 15 at Tampa Bay Downs finished second, 1 1/2 lengths behind stablemate Magnum Moon, who made short work of Saturday’s Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn.

No horse ran better on the Feb. 17 Risen Star card than Synchrony, a chestnut blur flying through the Fair Grounds homestretch en route to a two-length victory over the highly regarded Mr. Misunderstood in the Fair Grounds Handicap. The eye-catching performance came in Synchrony’s first start in almost nine months, a circumstance that could have both negative and positive implications.

Classy Act was just less than 6-1 odds when she won a first-level allowance race Jan. 19 at Fair Grounds and just more than 5-1 when she finished a fine second to Monomoy Girl in the Feb. 17 Rachel Alexandra Stakes, but the filly just might be favored Saturday in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Magnum Moon will dictate his schedule between now and the Kentucky Derby, trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunday, the morning after the horse improved his career record to 3 for 3 with his win in the Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel at Oaklawn.

Trainer Doug O’Neill was awake but dreaming early Sunday morning, a day after his trainee, Blended Citizen, registered a neck victory in Turfway Park’s Grade 3, $200,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks, a Kentucky Derby prep race.

“We’re getting that Derby dream, of course,” he said from phone from his Santa Anita base. “He always worked phenomenal on the dirt, but his best races have been turf or synthetic. So naturally we’re wondering, can he be the next Animal Kingdom?”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Breakfast with champions.

That was the theme at Santa Anita on Sunday morning, as a trio of Eclipse Award winners – West Coast, Roy H, and Unique Bella - worked for upcoming races, with two of them bound for Dubai.

A number of top trainers often leave Santa Anita in the spring with their better horses, owing to rich opportunities surrounding the Triple Crown races, and this year Bob Baffert said he will have a string at Churchill Downs. His runners there will be headed by multiple Grade 1 winner Hoppertunity, who is not going to the Dubai World Cup and instead is being pointed to the Alysheba at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby weekend, Baffert said.