Vodka Vodka, winner of the Unusual Heat Turf Classic for statebreds at Santa Anita in January, will start outside of California for the first time in Sunday’s $250,000 Sunland Park Stakes at 1 1/8 miles in New Mexico.

Vodka Vodka was second by 4 1/2 lengths to British Isles in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on dirt in his last start on March 7. Trainer Aggie Ordonez said the Sunland Park Stakes had appeal because of the distance and the surface.

“We would have loved to stay home, but there was not an option,” Ordonez said. “I wanted to keep him on dirt.

Lovesick Blues, a 2025 Grade 1 winner who was unplaced in two $2 million sprints in Saudi Arabia and Dubai in recent months, is scheduled to return to trainer Librado Barocio’s California stable in coming days.

It may not be long before Lovesick Blues is back in action.

Barocio said earlier this week that he hopes to start Lovesick Blues in the $100,000 Thor’s Echo Stakes for California-breds at six furlongs at Santa Anita on May 23.

The final winter meet at Aqueduct won’t be remembered fondly. Not only was the weather brutal, so too was business.

All-sources handle for the three-month winter session (Jan. 1-March 29) was $194,567,766, a 23.9 percent decrease from the 2025 winter meet during which handle was $255,640,649, according to figures provided by the New York Racing Association.

California-based trainer Phil D’Amato may have two starters in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn Park on April 11 – Stronghold, a Grade 1 winner in 2024, and the recent acquisition Maximum Bourbon.

Stronghold was scratched from the Grade 3 San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita last Sunday in favor of a start at Keeneland or Oaklawn Park in coming weeks. The $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint at six furlongs is one of those potential targets, D’Amato said.

Cee Drew and Start the Ride were part of a milestone day for trainer Dan Blacker at Santa Anita on Jan. 17, the first time in his 15-year career he won two stakes on the same day.

That day, Cee Drew won the $175,000 California Cup Oaks for statebred fillies on turf as the 2-1 second choice. Start the Ride won the $175,500 California Cup Derby at 13-1 in his first official start.

They are part of stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday, and this time both are longshots.

Class President, winner of the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes, will scratch from Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Blue Grass Stakes, trainer Todd Pletcher said Thursday.

“Just didn’t like the way he went today,” Pletcher said by phone from Keeneland. “Not saying he’s off the [Kentucky] Derby trail. We’ll check him out.”

The Blue Grass also lost Ocelli, who arrived in New York Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 2 Wood Memorial after vanning from Kentucky.

Now undefeated in two career starts, Shane’s Wonder has trainer Alfredo Velazquez in an excitable mood at Parx Racing. A potential stakes start could be on the horizon if the 3-year-old colt keeps making magic on the lead.

In his second start on Wednesday, March 25, Shane’s Wonder faced open company for the first time in a first-level allowance with a $75,000 optional claiming tag. In his second start under jockey Eliseo Ruiz, he looked even sharper than he did in a statebred maiden special weight in February.

Full Serrano, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in 2024, is unlikely to race again until the Del Mar summer meeting after finishing a troubled fourth in the Grade 3 Oaklawn Mile in Arkansas on Saturday.

The 2-1 second choice in a field of seven, Full Serrano stumbled at the start of the $500,000 Oaklawn Mile, breaking three or four lengths behind the field. Full Serrano raced wide throughout the race and finished 3 3/4 lengths behind 9-5 favorite Nu What’s New.

Without the troubled start, “he would have won,” trainer John Sadler said. “It was one of those deals.”

Queen Maxima, a five-time stakes winner in the last 14 months, will face a reduced field in Saturday’s Grade 3 Monrovia Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.

Two prominent 4-year-old fillies – Gratefully and Saratoga Special, first and second in the Wishing Well Stakes on Feb. 21 – are not part of a field of seven in the $100,000 Monrovia at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course.