OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Dale Romans thought he had his once-in-a-lifetime horse who could win the race every horseman wants to win once in their lifetime.

But Not This Time emerged from his runner-up finish in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with a soft-tissue injury in his right foreleg and was retired to stand at stud. As the sport gears up for the Kentucky Derby, it’s difficult for Romans not to think about what might have been.

“I tried to quit thinking about it,” Romans said Wednesday. “That was a once-in-a-lifetime horse.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Highway Star, a well-beaten fourth in the Ladies Handicap on Jan. 13, will look to bounce back in Saturday’s $150,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational, which drew a field of seven.

Highway Star, a New York-bred daughter of Girolamo, had won three consecutive races, including the Grade 3 Go for Wand at Aqueduct on Dec. 3, before she was beaten 17 lengths by Wonder Gal in the Ladies.

In the Ladies, Highway Star was four wide down the backstretch, made a move at the three-eighths pole, but was done by the quarter pole.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Mistressofthenight has earned a chance to run in Saturday’s Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita following a stylish win in a recent maiden race.

That does not translate into expectations for a win from trainer Richard Baltas. Baltas is fully aware of the competition – the exciting two-time graded stakes winner Unique Bella and the Grade 1 winner Abel Tasman.

“I don’t think I can win the race, but with a good race, I can run second or third,” he said Wednesday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The absence of Arrogate from the Grade 1 Santa Handicap on March 11 may lead to participation by runners from other circuits, and perhaps a turf stakes winner, in the track’s richest race for older horses.

Arrogate, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita in November and the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park in January in his last two starts, is scheduled to run in the $10 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on March 25.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – Classic Empire, who missed a work when an abscess popped out the heel of his right front hoof days after his third-place finish in the Holy Bull at Gulfstream last month, is back galloping at Palm Meadows. Trainer Mark Casse said he is hoping to breeze Classic Empire “in the next few days,” but first wants the warm weather to dissipate.

“I just don’t think he likes the warmer weather,” Casse said Wednesday. “I think once he gets to Kentucky, he’ll blossom.”

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – The setbacks incurred by both Classic Empire and McCraken in recent weeks here in south Florida give them the opportunity for just one more prep for the May 6 Kentucky Derby, and as of Wednesday, there was a real possibility that both could wind up in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 8.

Charles Town has a reputation as fertile ground for apprentice riders. Trainers, eager for any advantage they can get in sprint races as short as 4 1/2 furlongs, are willing to give live mounts to inexperienced jockeys in exchange for getting five to seven pounds off their horses.

Many of those young jockeys have succeeded, most prominently Jose Montano, who won an Eclipse Award as leading apprentice rider in 2012.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – In his quest to repeat as the Eclipse Award winner for outstanding trainer, Chad Brown might be able to look back at year’s end and point to this Saturday at Gulfstream Park as when it all started.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Tony Dutrow said Wednesday that Mo Town was scheduled to arrive at his Payson Park base from Fair Grounds later in the day and that he is withholding any judgment on the colt’s disappointing performance in the Risen Star last weekend.

“I want to give everyone a detailed catch-up on Monday after I’ve spent some time with him over the weekend,” said Dutrow. “But there are no red flags. I left him there Sunday in New Orleans, and everything was fine.”

Finger Lakes racetrack and its horsemen have reached a one-year deal that will clear the way for a 145-day live race meet this year starting on April 22, officials for the two sides said on Tuesday, but uncertainty over the long-term future of the track continues to loom.