The 11-year-old gelding Awakino Cat, who won stakes at Saratoga and Suffolk Downs, was retired Thursday night after he finished sixth in the seventh race at Penn National, a $4,000 claiming race, in the 72nd start of his career.

Before the race, David Neilson, the owner and trainer of Awakino Cat, agreed to give the horse to Samantha Randazzo, an assistant to trainer Linda Rice, who had the horse for the first six years of his racing career. Randazzo said Awakino Cat was her favorite horse.

“He was a little difficult to train, but he was a joy to be around,” Randazzo said.

No horse has come closer to defeating Mohaymen than did Seymourdini, who finished a half-length behind Mohaymen when both debuted at Belmont Park last Sept. 19.

While Mohaymen has gone on to win four graded stakes and become the early Kentucky Derby favorite, Seymourdini went on to win a maiden race in November but has yet to run since.

Seymourdini, a son of Bernardini, returned to the work tab Feb. 27, and trainer Linda Rice said the colt is at least six weeks away from returning to the races.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Channing Hill leads all riders in stakes wins at this Oaklawn Park meet, and his main mounts are cycling back into major races here over the next two weeks. Marquee Miss is a candidate for the Grade 3, $200,000 Honeybee next Saturday, and La Macchina is on deck for the Grade 3, $350,000 Razorback Handicap on March 19.

Hill, 28, is in the midst of a strong meet at his winter base of Oaklawn. He has won 15 races from 82 mounts to rank sixth in the standings through Thursday, with his starters earning $734,274. He had three stakes wins through Thursday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Following an impressive 5 3/4-length maiden victory at Belmont Park last fall, it appeared as though Matt King Coal would develop into the major 3-year-old player on the New York circuit this winter.

But illness forced him to miss the Withers and Jerome stakes earlier this year. Trainer Linda Rice didn’t feel that running him off a four-month layoff in Saturday’s Grade 3 Gotham Stakes was the appropriate thing to do, so Matt King Coal makes his return to the races Sunday in a $67,000, first-level allowance race at Aqueduct.

Kobe’s Back, one of five confirmed starters for the Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes on March 12 at Santa Anita, worked a sharp half-mile Friday under Gary Stevens. Kobe’s Back worked by himself at 7:45 a.m. and was timed in 47.20 seconds, the second-fastest half-mile of the day. Visually, Kobe’s Back did not appear to be working fast. It was a solid work for trainer Peter Eurton.

Kobe’s Back won the Grade 2 Palos Verdes last out in his first start of the season. Others expected to run in the seven-furlong San Carlos are Calculator, Outside Nashville, Salutos Amigos, and Wild Dude.

ARCADIA, Calif. – It was a long journey from Florida to California on Thursday for Effinex, but the bright-eyed 5-year-old looked a picture Friday morning at Santa Anita, where he will play a leading role next weekend in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap.

Effinex, the runner-up to American Pharoah in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the winner of the Grade 1 Clark Handicap in his most recent start Nov. 27 at Churchill Downs, is expected to start favored next Saturday in a Big Cap field that numbered seven likely starters as of Friday.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After watching Heart to Heart post a third consecutive graded stakes win with a wire-to-wire victory in the Grade 3 Canadian Turf here at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 27, trainer Brian Lynch said the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile was next for his remarkably consistent grass specialist. But suddenly, there is another option to consider, a trip to Dubai for the $6 million Dubai Turf on March 26.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The perceived superiority of Songbird in the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel on Saturday at Santa Anita will push two good fillies into other races. Grade 1 winner Street Fancy will scratch; multiple statebred stakes winner Pacific Heat did not enter.

The reason is undefeated Songbird.

“If she runs, I’m not going to run,” said Phil D’Amato, Street Fancy’s trainer. “She’s going to run in the Fair Grounds Oaks [on March 26]. It’s a long, long stretch, similar to Los Alamitos.”

Sunday Rules, the California-bred speedball who knocked off males Jan. 30 in the California Cup Sprint, will seek her first graded stakes win at Keeneland. Trainer Phil D’Amato said Sunday Rules, a daughter of Tribal Rule, will target the Grade 1, seven-furlong Madison Stakes on April 9.

D’Amato plans to ship a small string to Keeneland this spring. The participants are to be determined.

Catch a Flight is on the comeback trail. Among the top handicap horses in California last season, when he won three graded stakes, Catch a Flight has resumed training with Richard Mandella and will target a spring-summer campaign.

“He just started galloping, and he looks great,” Mandella said. “He’ll gallop for another two weeks and then start to breeze. I wish I had him right now, but he had a hell of a good year, then he stiffened up. He needed a rest.”