ARCADIA, Calif. – Parlay wagering in win, place, and show pools will resume Thursday after an absence of several years, according to Santa Anita director of operations John Perrotta.

The option was introduced in the 1990’s and later discontinued because of a lack of interest, track officials said at the time.

Perrotta, who joined Santa Anita’s staff last month, said customers had requested that parlay betting be reinstated.

“I had so many people ask me to bring it back,” he said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Silent Bird, the multiple stakes winner who sustained a sesamoid injury in a workout at Santa Anita on Wednesday, is scheduled to undergo surgery this weekend, trainer Mark Glatt said Friday.

Glatt said the surgery will stabilize the injured leg with a plate.

“He doesn’t act like a hurt horse,” Glatt said. “He takes good care of himself.

“He seems to have good blood flow. As long as he has good blood flow to his feet, and we can keep him comfortable, we’ll probably be okay.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – From champion sprinter Roy H to promising 3-year-olds, older horses, and turf marathoners, there is a wide array of stakes at Santa Anita on the first weekend of February.

Roy H, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar in November, was named the champion sprinter of 2017 at the Eclipse Award ceremony in Florida on Thursday. Roy H will have his 2018 debut in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes at six furlongs at Santa Anita next Saturday.

Runaway Ghost invades Sunland Park from Southern California for the $100,000 Riley Allison on Sunday, but he’s no newcomer to New Mexico.

“He’s coming home to where he started,” trainer Todd Fincher said. “We broke him and got him ready to run and sent him to California.”

Runaway Ghost made his first four starts in California for trainer Mike Machowsky and returned to the region last month to target the 3-year-old series at Sunland. It begins with the Riley Allison, which is one of two local preps for the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Irish War Cry, one of the top 3-year-olds of 2017, continues on a steady work pattern toward his anticipated comeback in the Feb. 24 Hal’s Hope, a one-turn mile at Gulfstream.

“He’s coming along great,” said trainer Graham Motion. “I guess depending on how things go the next few weeks, the Hal’s Hope does seem like a possible target, but he wouldn’t have to miss a beat.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It never ends at Gulfstream Park. One weekend after the $16 million Pegasus World Cup and the dispersal of a gigantic Rainbow 6 pool were to occur here, the first major race in the Gulfstream series of Kentucky Derby preps for 3-year-olds is on tap with the 29th running of the Grade 2, $350,000 Holy Bull Stakes next Saturday.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Eddie Plesa Sr., whose son, trainer Eddie Plesa Jr., is a mainstay on the New Jersey and south Florida circuits, died Thursday. He was 90.

The elder Plesa left home at age 12 and won his first race as a jockey a year later at Ak Sar Ben. He was the second trainer to come through the stablegate when Calder Race Course opened in 1970 and had horses for such notable owners as Fred Hooper Jr. and Ollie Cohen’s Crown Stable before retiring in 2011 with 410 career victories. His best horses over the years included Cute Sketch, Bazoom, and Shuffle Dance.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jockey Luis Saez rode seven winners on Wednesday’s 11-race program at Gulfstream Park, tying a track record set by Jerry Bailey in 1996 and equaled last July by Tyler Gaffalione.

Saez scored aboard Lawless Lady ($7.60) in race 2, Admirable Kiss ($4.20) in race 3, Charge Card ($26.60) in race 5, Appa ($6.60) in race 7, Emperor John ($3.80) in race 8, Arch Daddy ($10) in race 9, and Arcelor ($6) in race 10.

Canterbury Park will host 35 stakes races worth $2.375 million during its 2018 racing season, the Twin Cities-area track announced in a press release Wednesday.

The stakes schedule includes three more races than the 2017 program and is worth $372,000 more than last year. According to the release, it’s the most lucrative stakes program in track history.

Fair Grounds Racecourse in New Orleans won’t allow horses based in New York and Maryland to ship onto its grounds, the track announced in a news release Wednesday.

The ban was put in place because of positive tests for equine herpesvirus from racehorses in both states. A barn at Belmont Park in New York housing horses trained by Linda Rice remains under quarantine following a positive herpesvirus test there, but Laurel Park lifted a single-barn quarantine earlier this week after a horse with a positive herpes test was re-tested and returned a negative result.