ARCADIA, Calif. – Del Mar continues its progress toward the installation of a dirt main track, president Joe Harper said Sunday.

Harper said the Polytrack synthetic surface should be fully removed by early February, with the installation of the new dirt surface set to be completed by April. The new track will be used for the first time for training in advance of the Barretts May sale of 2-year-olds on May 27. A training preview of sale horses is scheduled for May 25. Barretts will not conduct sales at its Pomona location after February.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Harlington’s Rose, the winner of the Kalookan Queen Stakes on Dec. 28, is likely to start in the $200,000 Santa Monica Stakes for fillies and mares over seven furlongs Jan. 19, trainer Steve Knapp said.

Knapp said an alternative is the $150,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Sprint on the hillside turf course Jan. 24.

“We’ll look at the Santa Monica, and if it’s not too tough, we’ll run there,” Knapp said. “I’d prefer to keep her on the dirt. My filly is sharp now.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Former South American runners will have a strong influence on the $200,000 San Pasqual Stakes on Saturday.

As of Tuesday, four of the 10 probable starters began their careers in Argentina, Brazil, or Chile – Baccelo, Big Cazanova, Bronzo, and Salto Del Indio. All have raced in the United States since at least last summer.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Shortly after the start of the Gold Rush Stakes at Golden Gate Fields on Dec. 6, luck deserted Unblunted, the even-money favorite.

He was five wide on the first turn of the one-mile race for 2-year-olds and raced off the rail throughout, finishing fifth, 3 1/2 lengths behind race winner Stand and Salute.

“Nothing unfolded properly for the horse,” trainer Michael McCarthy recalled Tuesday.

Delaware Park has scheduled six handicapping tournaments this year. They will be Feb. 7, March 7, April 4, June 13, Sept. 12, and Nov. 21.

The entry fee for each contest will be $100, and players must put up another $100 as a bankroll.

Contest officials will select five or six designated tournament tracks. Players must make at least 10 win, place, or show wagers on those tracks but can make as many wagers as they want. Wagers must be a minimum of $10 but can be as high as a player wishes. If a player’s bankroll taps out, he is eliminated.

When Maryland’s leading rider, Trevor McCarthy, broke his wrist Dec. 20 at Laurel Park, it opened up the playing field for everyone else.

Not all that surprisingly, Victor Carrasco, who finished second to McCarthy at all three Maryland meets in 2014, has been the main beneficiary. Sheldon Russell also has done well.

Carrasco, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice of 2013, has gone 10 for 42 (24 percent) on the six cards that Laurel has had since McCarthy was injured. Carrasco won four races on New Year’s Day.

Trainer Dale Romans dominated Monday’s work tab at Gulfstream, sending out 21 horses to breeze, many of whom figure to be prominent in 3-year-old stakes later this winter.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fl a. – Trainer Todd Pletcher has nominated six horses to Saturday’s Grade 3 Hal’s Hope but will start only one, Golden Lad, who’ll launch his comeback in the one-mile fixture after having been away since his eighth-place finish last May in the Grade 3 Pimlico Special.

Belle Gallantey, the dual Grade 1 winner who ran fifth in her 6-year-old debut, may get another chance to run again, part-owner Michael Dubb said Monday.

Kid Cruz, one of the graded stakes-winning 3-year-olds who trained in New York last winter, returned to the work tab Saturday, breezing an easy half-mile in 52.20 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.

It was his first work since he had a bone chip removed from his left foreleg following a fourth-place finish in the Travers last August.

“He looks great. He’s really matured, strong, powerful, fresh,” trainer Linda Rice said. “He wanted to do a lot more [Saturday].”