HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Nominations for the $1 million Florida Derby were to be released late Wednesday, with only seven to eight expected to start from the list of about 25 nominees.

The top three finishers from the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth – Gunnevera, Practical Joke, and Three Rules – could meet again April 1 in the nine-furlong Florida Derby, although trainer Chad Brown has not confirmed Practical Joke as a definite starter. Likewise, Todd Pletcher has not committed Battalion Runner and Always Dreaming, although both are expected to be entered.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There are no superstars in the field, but Saturday’s $100,000 Cicada Stakes drew a competitive group of five 3-year-old fillies for the six-furlong race.

Wilburnmoney and Bluegrass Flag, the one-two finishers in the Franklin Square Stakes for New York-breds, meet again in the Cicada. Wilburnmoney was a 20-1 upset winner of the Franklin Square, finishing two lengths in front of Bluegrass Flag, who ran in that race after a scheduled allowance race a week earlier was canceled due to snow.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – To date, horsemen have been timid when it comes to committing their 3-year-olds to the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial on April 8 at Aqueduct.

El Areeb, Cloud Computing, and Irish War Cry are the notable names expected to run. Trainer Todd Pletcher, a four-time Wood winner with a plethora of 3-year-olds again this year, would seemingly have to run one or two but has yet to finalize plans.

The late horseman Harvey Vanier had a direct influence on the result of the Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri last Saturday at Oaklawn Park. Streamline, who won the race, represents the best of the Illinois-based breeding and racing program Vanier operated with his wife, Nancy.

Mopotism, who won the local prep for the Sunland Oaks, the Island Fashion, has a couple of options for her next start, trainer Doug O’Neill said Tuesday. Mopotism ran third in the Grade 1 Starlet at Santa Anita as a juvenile last year.

“It looks like she’ll be pointed for the Ashland or Fair Grounds Oaks,” O’Neill said. “It’s just really whatever is in her best interest.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – The Grade 2 San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita may be in the midst of a revival.

Saturday’s $200,000 San Luis Rey Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf had 12 expected starters on Wednesday, a change from earlier in this decade, when the race drew fields of five in 2012 and 2014 and six in 2011.

Del Mar has scheduled 41 stakes for its summer meeting, which runs July 19 to Sept. 4, including several that serve as prep races for the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 3-4. Del Mar is hosting the Breeders’ Cup for the first time this year.

The summer stakes schedule is led by the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 19, one of five races that offer an automatic berth for the winner to a Breeders’ Cup race. The winner of the Pacific Classic will receive a fees-paid berth to the $6 million BC Classic.

CINCINNATI – Kitten’s Cat was pegged a lukewarm 4-1 morning-line favorite when a full field of 3-year-olds was drawn Wednesday at the Jack Cincinnati Casino for the Grade 3, $500,000 Spiral Stakes, the annual showcase event at Turfway Park across the Ohio River in Florence, Ky.

Long before trainer Bob Baffert was inducted into the racing Hall of Fame, saddled a Triple Crown winner in American Pharoah, and won the world’s richest Thoroughbred race with Pegasus World Cup hero Arrogate, he spent the occasional weekend at Sunland Park in New Mexico.

The teenaged Baffert soaked in stories told by prominent horsemen Bubba Cascio, Walter Merrick, and J.B. Montgomery during visits from Arizona. He would later return to Sunland as a trainer in his own right and experienced a life-changing win at the track in a derby for Quarter Horses.

FLORENCE, Ky. – Kent Sweezey is coming home. Sweezey has been allotted six stalls at the Trackside training center in Louisville, where he will embark on a solo training career using his home state of Kentucky as his primary base.

Sweezey, 31, has worked the last seven years in California and New York as a stable hand and assistant for Eoin Harty, Christophe Clement, and, most recently, Jimmy Jerkens. For Jerkens, he worked closely with such stars as Wicked Strong, Effinex, Unified, and Shaman Ghost.