NEW ORLEANS – After winning races in bunches at Evangeline Downs and Delta Downs in the last few years, jockey Colby Hernandez has brought his tack to Fair Grounds with the intention of showing that he’s ready to step up in class.

Hernandez is off to a solid start. With six wins in the first five racing days, he stood in a second-place tie with Francisco Torres in the jockeys’ race, one win behind Florent Geroux.

On Thursday, Hernandez won the season’s first stakes race, urging Control Stake to a front-running victory in the Thanksgiving Handicap.

The snowbirds are returning to Florida in full force for the winter, including horsemen from the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Canada who flooded the entry box for Saturday’s card at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar. The 10-race card drew 121 entries, about a dozen per race.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine will operate a 133-day Thoroughbred meet in 2016, pending approval from the Ontario Racing Commission, according to a Wednesday announcement from the Woodbine Entertainment Group and the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association of Ontario.

Opening day for the 2016 season is set for April 9, and the meet will conclude on Dec. 4. As usual, the meet will be highlighted by the $1 million Queen’s Plate, which will be run for the 157th time on July 3.

Louisiana-bred millionaire Sunbean hasn’t raced since February but is galloping steadily, is close to being ready to breeze, and, if all goes well, will make his comeback sometime during the Fair Grounds meet, according to trainer Ron Faucheux.

“He’s been galloping, and he’s training great,” Faucheux said. “He’s never looked so good to me.”

Trainer Mike Stidham won with half of his eight starters during the four-day opening week of the Fair Grounds meet and sent all of those runners out to finishes of third or better. Stidham won two high-end turf-route races with the fillies Zubi Zubi Zu and Masquerade, and on Friday night, he ran one-two in that card’s only grass race with Dewey Lake and Joe Mambo.

Florent Geroux and Cisco Torres each rode six winners during opening week, with Mitchell Murrill finding the winner’s circle five times and Colby Hernandez notching four wins.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Nobody appreciates Keen Ice more than Jerry Crawford, who manages the Donegal Racing partnership that owns the Travers Stakes winner. That appreciation is why Crawford was waffling this week about whether the star 3-year-old actually will start Friday in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Owner and trainer Jamie Grubbs scratched the 13-year-old Missing Sefa from a $5,000 claiming race Wednesday at Churchill Downs after reading on social media that the mare would be claimed on the premise that she needed to be rescued.

Grubbs said a Facebook funding campaign was started by a Thoroughbred retirement organization, but after Grubbs contacted the person responsible, the campaign was stopped.

As a general rule, it’s a good idea not to get too invested in 2-year-old debut maiden winners, but this is the time of year, as the 2-year-old crop nears its third birthday and the spring classics loom, that that rule often gets broken. And when the debut maiden winner in question is a half-brother to beloved Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra and his trainer says the colt is “one of the nicest horses I’ve sat on in my life,” well, let the silly season begin.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It has been a career year for trainer Chad Brown, who has recorded personal bests in wins, graded stakes wins, and purse earnings. The 36-year-old conditioner looks to put a ribbon on a magnificent 2015 when he sends out top contenders in three of the four graded stakes being run Saturday at Aqueduct.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With Delightful Joy out with a temperature, Carrumba could inherit the role as favorite for the Grade 3, $300,000 Comely Stakes for 3-year-old fillies here Saturday.

Carrumba, trained by Shug McGaughey, brings a three-race winning streak into the Comely, which will be her stakes debut. Carrumba, a daughter of Bernardini, drew post 7 in the 10-horse field. She will be joined in the gate by her stablemate Fast Retailing.