OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Rudy Rodriguez said that the recent stakes winners Heaven’s Runway and Bonita Bianca are getting a brief freshening before their next starts, which could come in February.

Heaven’s Runway, the winner of the Dave’s Friend at Laurel on Dec. 31 and the Grade 3 Fall Highweight at Aqueduct on Thanksgiving Day, will be in light training for a few weeks. He could point to the Grade 3, $250,000 General George at Laurel on Feb. 18 or wait for the Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool at Aqueduct on March 11 or the Grade 1 Carter at Aqueduct on April 8.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The holiday season may be over, but owner Roddy Valente hopes his reasons for celebrating are not.

In the last five weeks, Valente has won six races at three different tracks and was a nose away from winning a seventh race last Friday at Aqueduct.

“They let me back in the game,” Valente kidded on Monday. “It feels good to be back.”

Valente hopes the good tidings continue Saturday when he sends out Doyouknowsomething in the $125,000 Jazil Stakes at Aqueduct.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A week ago, trainer Mark Casse said everything would have to go perfectly for Classic Empire to make the Grade 2 Holy Bull here on Feb. 4. Classic Empire moved a lot closer to that goal by working four furlongs in 49.78 seconds and galloping out five-eighths in 1:03.40 at the Palm Meadows training center on Sunday, according to Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Vesce.

The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, Classic Empire worked in company with the older graded stakes winner Kaigun.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Tether to Reality has the pedigree to be a star, but his connections had to wait a long while before the gelding could strut his stuff. That day finally came last Friday, when the 5-year-old son of Harlan’s Holiday made his career debut at Tampa Bay Downs in a $20,000 maiden special weight race, winning the six-furlong sprint by 3 1/2 lengths and stopping the clock in a snappy 1:10.81. He earned a 79 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Only five horses signed up to face Tepin in last year’s Grade 3, $150,000 Endeavour Stakes, and a similarly small group is likely for this year’s edition of the turf route at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 11, when the champion turf mare will seek a repeat win. One possible contender emerged here Sunday, when Light In Paris returned from a long layoff to win a no-conditions, $25,500 allowance.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – So far, so good as far as California Chrome’s connections are concerned in his quest to end his career on a winning note in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28.

California Chrome arrived locally following an uneventful flight from the West Coast on Friday, visited the track for the first time to jog on Sunday, and turned in a routine gallop well before sunrise Monday, going 1 3/4 miles under his regular exercise rider, Dihigi Gladney. Temperatures hovered around 50 degrees the last two mornings, with the wind chill in the high 30s.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The pick six at Santa Anita begins Thursday with a four-day carryover of $137,529 in the single-ticket jackpot pool.

The carryover is the highest in the single-ticket portion of the pick six since a jackpot format was introduced at the start of the winter-spring meeting Dec. 26. The jackpot portion is paid only if there is one winning ticket.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Masochistic, who was disqualified from a second-place finish in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Sprint after testing positive for steroids, recently tested negative for steroids and could be allowed to resume racing this winter.

ARCADIA, Calif. – This could be another memorable winter for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and the leading 3-year-old filly in his stable.

A year after Songbird won three stakes at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, the Hall of Fame trainer has another runner with immense promise. Unique Bella won her stakes debut in Sunday’s $200,000 Santa Ynez Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs by 7 1/2 lengths.

The margin could have been more if jockey Mike Smith had urged Unique Bella in the final sixteenth.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Ian Kruljac follows the Southern California weather these days as avidly as some folks follow politics or the NFL playoffs.

Kruljac is the trainer of Finest City, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita in November. Finest City is nearing a comeback in the $200,000 Santa Monica Stakes at seven furlongs at Santa Anita on Jan. 21 but has had her preparation disrupted by wet weather in Southern California in recent weeks.