As of Tuesday, eight horses have been confirmed for Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby for 3-year-olds going 1 1/8 miles on the Tapeta synthetic track at Golden Gate Fields. The race offers 10 points toward the Kentucky Derby.

Conquest Typhoon, a finalist for the Sovereign Award for Canada’s top 2-year-old male, will make his 3-year-old debut under Mike Smith in the El Camino Real. He won the Grade 2 Summer Stakes at Woodbine and the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille at Del Mar and was fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

The Equine Encore Performance at Charles Town retirement program reports it placed 54 Charles Town-based horses during its first year.

Equine Encore Performance at Charles Town (www.equineencoreperformanceatct.org) is a non-profit corporation staffed by volunteers. It receives the majority of its financial support from horse owners through a fee of $2 per starter. It also accepts donations from foundations and the public.

Filly and mare sprinters seldom get to run for $300,000, which is why the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Handicap at Laurel Park on Saturday is drawing runners from California, Florida, and New York. But one top contender won’t have to travel at all.

Lady Sabelia has resided in trainer Robin Graham’s barn at Laurel since 2012. And while that may give her a slight edge Saturday, she has more going for her than just home-field advantage. Lady Sabelia has been mopping the decks with her competition since last spring, and has won five of her last six races.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Chad Brown won three races over the weekend with 3-year-olds making their first start, but he said he is in no rush to push them along the Derby trail.

The winners were Lieutenant Colonel (by Colonel John) and Rare Art (by Speightstown) on Saturday, and Delightful Joy (by Tapit) on Sunday.

“Obviously there are some nice races at this time of year, but we’re always looking at the whole year,” Brown said. “I mean, we’ll look at how a race like the Swale is coming up, but I’m more about big picture.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Buff Bradley has had lightning strike twice in his 22-year training career with $2.1-million-earner Brass Hat and two-time champion Groupie Doll.

No one is suggesting a 3-year-old colt named Divisidero is about to follow in their footsteps, but a rallying triumph by the 3-year-old Kitten’s Joy colt in his career debut here Saturday “sure was impressive,” Bradley said.

Divisidero, a $250,000 yearling purchase for the Gunpowder Farms of Pennsylvania businessman Tom Keithley, was sent off at 25-1 in the 1 1/16-mile maiden race on grass.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Harlington’s Rose became a stakes winner in her 18th start in the minor Kalookan Queen Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 28.

Trainer Steve Knapp has the goal of making the 4-year-old filly a graded stakes winner this spring, which is why he scratched Harlington’s Rose from the minor Wishing Well Stakes on turf last Sunday in favor of an optional claimer at six furlongs on dirt at Santa Anita on Thursday.

Knapp envisions the optional claimer as a prep for the $100,000 Las Flores, a Grade 3 stakes for older fillies and mares at six furlongs on March 8.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Mark Casse had been resigned to missing the Kentucky Derby chase this year. But at least one promising colt has him thinking he might have a shot to make the May 2 Derby after all.

A 4 3/4-length victory by Danzig Moon in a one-mile maiden race Saturday at Gulfstream Park has earned the son of Malibu Moon a berth in the March 7 Tampa Bay Derby, said Casse.

Mondays often are busy workout days for the Steve Asmussen barn, and Feb. 9 at Fair Grounds was no exception, as Asmussen sent all his best Fair Grounds-based stock through timed drills.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though Kid Cruz is progressing well, trainer Linda Rice doesn’t think he will be ready to run this coming weekend.

Sidelined since August, when he came out of a fourth-place finish in the Travers with a knee chip, Kid Cruz worked six furlongs in 1:15.25 Sunday morning over the Belmont Park training track. It was his fifth work for his return and second at six furlongs. Rice had targeted next Monday’s $100,000 Evening Attire Stakes at Aqueduct, but said it’s unlikely Kid Cruz would run.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While the top three finishers from Saturday’s Grade 3 Withers Stakes could very well run back in next month’s Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct, that race also looks like the destination for Ocean Knight, undefeated winner of the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on Jan. 31.