OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Graded stakes winners Takaful and Highway Star topped a busy work tab Thursday morning at Belmont Park where 185 horses put in timed workouts over a fast training track.

As is.

After undergoing much tinkering the last several years, the 2018 Saratoga stakes schedule will virtually mirror that of 2017, with 69 stakes worth $18.8 million offered through the 40-day meet, which runs July 20 through Sept. 3.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The rematch between Paradise Woods and Unique Bella is on hold while Paradise Woods recovers from an illness that will cost her nearly two weeks of training.

Trainer Richard Mandella said Thursday he is hopeful Paradise Woods will resume training late next week. The interruption means Paradise Woods probably will miss a Feb. 10 rematch with Unique Bella in the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes.

ELMONT, N.Y. – A barn at Belmont Park housing mostly horses trained by Linda Rice was placed under quarantine Wednesday after an unraced 3-year-old trained by Rice tested positive for the equine herpesvirus (EHV-1) on Tuesday, according to the New York Racing Association.

NEW ORLEANS – Finley’sluckycharm, among the top older female sprinters during 2017, when she won three graded stakes, had her first work of the winter when she went an easy three furlongs in 38 seconds Sunday.

Finley’sluckycharm ended last year’s campaign with a below-form Breeders’ Cup showing, finishing ninth in the Filly and Mare Sprint, but trainer Bret Calhoun is pointing her to the 2018 Filly and Mare Sprint, which will be run over a Churchill Downs surface Finley’sluckycharm loves.

NEW ORLEANS – The Silverbulletday Stakes here Saturday includes some talented 3-year-old fillies, but another Fair Grounds-based horse in the division, Monomoy Girl, probably is as talented as any of them.

A Tapizar filly trained by Brad Cox, Monomoy Girl won her first three starts last year, including a 6 1/2-length victory in the Rags to Riches Stakes at Churchill, but might have run her best race in her lone loss at 2, finishing second by a neck to Road to Victory in the Grade 2 Golden Rod on Nov. 25 at Churchill.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The field for Saturday’s $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct underwent some alterations when it was re-drawn Wednesday after having to be postponed from New Year’s Day due to inclement weather.

NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Buff Bradley’s first meet-long foray since the early 1990s into Fair Grounds racing has not gotten off to a roaring start, but Bradley has horses of note to run on Saturday’s Road to the Derby Kickoff card.

Chief among them is The Player, the talented 5-year-old who could well be favored in the $75,000 Louisiana, the last of six stakes on a card headlined by the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte for 3-year-olds.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – My Boy Tate, winner of three consecutive races, will make his stakes debut in Saturday’s inaugural $100,000 Say Florida Sandy Stakes for New York-bred male sprinters at seven furlongs.

A gelding by Boys At Tosconova, My Boy Tate has won his last three starts by a combined 20 3/4 lengths, topped by a 9 1/4-length second-level allowance score Dec. 9 going seven furlongs. Following an Aug. 13 maiden win at Saratoga, My Boy Tate kicked a stall wall and bruised a foot. In his last two races, he’s earned Beyer Speed Figures of 93 and 95.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Alex the Terror, a hard-hitting 6-year-old son of Mineshaft, sustained a fractured sesamoid in his left foreleg during a routine gallop Tuesday morning at Belmont Park and had to be euthanized, trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed Wednesday.

Pletcher had claimed Alex the Terror for $62,500 for owner Mike Repole on Sept. 30. In two subsequent starts, Alex the Terror won a second-level allowance by four lengths and finished second, beaten a neck, in the $125,000 Queens County Stakes.

“That was a tough blow,” Pletcher said of the fatal injury.