Highway Star, the winner of the Grade 3 Go for Wand in December, will target the $150,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational on March 4, trainer Rodrigo Ubillo said.

Following the Go for Wand, Highway Star came back in the Ladies Handicap, where she finished fourth, beaten 17 lengths, by Wonder Gal. Ubillo decided to give the New York-bred filly a break following that performance.

On Friday, Highway Star returned to the work tab, breezing three furlongs in 38.16 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The bright-orange helmet cover on the rider of a Bill Mott-trained horse galloping over the Belmont Park training track Saturday morning was a dead giveaway: Junior Alvarado is back.

Sort of.

Saturday morning was Alvarado’s first day on horseback since Dec. 11. Shortly thereafter, he underwent surgery to repair the rotator cuff on his left shoulder. Alvarado said he still has a way to go to be fit enough to ride races in the afternoon, but he is targeting mid-March for his return to competition.

LAUREL, Md. – El Areeb, a runaway winner of four straight races, including a pair of Grade 3 stakes at Aqueduct, the Jerome and Withers, breezed a quicker-than-it-looked half-mile at his home base of Laurel Park on Saturday in 47.80 seconds.

The work was the second-fastest of 35 at the distance, according to head clocker Kevin Geraghty, who timed El Areeb through an opening quarter in 24 seconds and in a gallop-out time of 1:00.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Channing Hill is the regular rider on two of the more exciting 3-year-olds currently racing, and both will run in graded stakes over the next week. Uncontested goes for his second consecutive stakes win of the Oaklawn Park meet Monday in the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest, while Farrell seeks her third straight stakes victory Saturday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Matrooh, the winner of the Grade 3 Bold Ruler in the fall of 2015, returns from a 13-month layoff Sunday in a $78,000 allowance/optional claimer going a mile at Aqueduct.

Matrooh, a 7-year-old gelding by Distorted Humor, has raced only 13 times. He began his career in Britain in 2013 before coming to the U.S. He came back from a 17-month layoff to win a first-level allowance race going a mile at Gulfstream in March 2015.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The last time Even Thunder raced in New York, he won the King’s Swan Stakes going six furlongs over Aqueduct’s main track on Dec. 2.

After an ill-fated attempt to stretch out in distance in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes at Gulfstream Park, Even Thunder is back sprinting and back in New York for Monday’s $100,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at Aqueduct.

Even Thunder, a gelding by Even the Score, was one of six 3-year-olds entered Friday for the Jimmy Winkfield, which tops the Presidents Day card.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Cal Lynch says he only has a small say in plotting out the schedule for his talented 3-year-old El Areeb. The horse himself is the one who is truly dictating when he’ll make his next start.

Conquest Fahrenheit, who was second in the Grade 2 Summer Stakes at Woodbine last September, is scheduled to have his California stakes debut in Monday’s $75,000 Baffle Stakes. Trained by Peter Miller, Conquest Fahrenheit was third in his first start in California in an optional claimer on dirt Feb. 2. Miller said Friday that Conquest Fahrenheit needed that start.

The Baffle Stakes is run on the hillside turf course for 3-year-olds at about 6 1/2 furlongs. Other contenders are Anyportinastorm, Bay Muzik, Elwood J, Rockin Rudy, Souter, and Tipo Duro.

A grim forecast could not keep Imperative from a half-mile workout at Santa Anita on Friday.

Imperative worked in 49 seconds on the infield training track, an exercise trainer Bob Hess Jr. said keeps the 7-year-old gelding on schedule for the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 11.

Santa Anita will add Thursday programs on April 20 and June 1 to its schedule to compensate for three days of cancellations because of wet weather during January and on Friday, track senior vice president Joe Morris said Friday.

The track did not race Friday because a storm was expected to deliver several inches of rain. Racing was also canceled Jan. 12 and Jan. 22 because of extensive rain.