Friday afternoon is the deadline for horsemen to pick up slots for the Jan. 27 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream, setting off a scramble of deal-making this week as top players weigh whether to buy a slot outright or strike a deal with parties that had already bought a place in the starting gate.

Gun Runner, this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and likely Horse of the Year, is definitely in, with his owners purchasing a slot Thursday and sending in the mandatory $350,000 down payment, according to Ron Winchell, one of the owners of the horse.

Come Dancing made quite the return to the races Thursday, winning a first-level allowance race by 6 1/2 lengths. Over a slow track, she ran six furlongs in 1:13.48 and earned a 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

Come Dancing, a 3-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Malibu Moon, was making her first start since she won her career debut by 3 1/2 lengths at Aqueduct on Nov. 6, 2016. She was scratched from the $100,000 Furlough Stakes at Aqueduct on Nov. 24, 2016 with what was ultimately diagnosed as a fractured pastern, which required surgery.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mother Nature, the racing schedule, and herself appear to be the only things that can slow trainer Linda Rice down these days.

Rajiv Maragh, the regular rider of recent champions Groupie Doll and Main Sequence, is relocating to California for the start of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26.

In a phone interview Friday, Maragh said he plans to work horses at Santa Anita on Monday and Tuesday before returning to New York for mounts later in the week. He will return to California for opening day.

“Once I get settled in, I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I’ve always thought that one day I’d want to try California.”

CYPRESS, Calif. – The 4-year-old filly Scathing won a starter allowance at five furlongs Thursday at Los Alamitos, becoming the first horse based at San Luis Rey Downs to start after the devastating wildfire that struck the Bonsall, Calif., training center on Dec. 7.

To be allowed to run, Scathing underwent a two-stage respiratory exam required for any horse based at San Luis Rey Downs at the time of the fire.

Pavel, the 3-year-old colt trained by Doug O’Neill, was never a factor in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 4. Sent off at 28-1, Pavel was sixth on the backstretch and faded to finish 10th, the worst loss of his five-race career.

The assignment was too tough for Pavel, who won the Grade 3 Smarty Jones Stakes at Parx Racing in Pennsylvania on Sept. 4 in his third start.

Chad Brown will have no shortage of top 3-year-old talent in south Florida this winter, including Breeders’ Cup winners Good Magic (Juvenile) and Rushing Fall (Juvenile Fillies Turf), along with the undefeated and yet untested turf specialist Analyze It.

Brown said both Good Magic and Rushing Fall have been training at Stonestreet Farm in Ocala, while Analyze It is with him at Palm Meadows.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Dale Romans has returned to south Florida for the winter, his barn stacked and loaded, particularly with soon-to-turn 3-year-old prospects led by Grade 1 winner Free Drop Billy and Hollywood Star.

Darren Fleming might have pursued a jockey career had he not signed on to work for Steve Asmussen in the early 1990s. Apparently, there were just two obstacles keeping him from the saddle.

“I had a lack of talent – and [I had] excess weight,” deadpanned Fleming.

The featured eighth race Sunday at Fair Grounds is a second-level turf-route allowance also open to $40,000 claimers. It has 11 horses in the main body plus four main-track-only entrants, and on its own would go a long way to holding together the entire program.

But there is much more to this card, mainly in the form of promising 2-year-olds.