Larry Collmus has been named the new race-caller at Churchill Downs, replacing Mark Johnson, who had called at the Louisville, Ky., landmark since the 2009 spring meet.

For Collmus, 47, the hire represents yet another major coup in an announcing career that started in 1985 at the old Bowie in his native Maryland. Collmus has called the Triple Crown races since 2011 and the Breeders’ Cup since 2012, both for NBC Sports, while also serving as the regular caller at Gulfstream Park and Monmouth Park.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Palace Malice, the 2013 Belmont Stakes winner and a top handicap prospect for this year, will begin his 4-year-old campaign in the Grade 2, $250,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap, a one-turn, one-mile race here March 8, according to a media release this week from the colt’s owner, Dogwood Stable.

“This mile race is a logical debut for the colt,” said Dogwood president Cot Campbell, adding that the colt was sent from a winter break in Aiken, S.C., to trainer Todd Pletcher at Palm Meadows on Jan. 7.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Honor Code, one of the leading contenders for the 140th Kentucky Derby, had his first breeze since he missed about a week of training when going three furlongs on a warm Wednesday morning at Gulfstream Park.

As Honor Code was cooling out, trainer Shug McGaughey confirmed that the son of A.P. Indy most likely will make the first start of his 3-year-old season in the March 15 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park, “mostly because of the timing. That way, there’s seven weeks until the [May 3] Derby, and we can get a second prep in there somewhere.”

Noble Moon returned to the work tab Wednesday morning for the first time since he won the Jerome Stakes on Jan. 4, breezing three furlongs in 38.95 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

Trainer Mike Stidham appears to have live runners in the two allowance races carded Friday at Fair Grounds.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Tapiture will be a regular on Oaklawn Park’s road to the Kentucky Derby this spring, with the Grade  2 winner to launch his season Monday in the Southwest Stakes. The Grade 3, $300,000 race is the second stakes in the local series that continues with the Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel on March 15 and the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 12.

Trainer Bob Baffert is considering jumping into the Louisiana Preview Day card on Feb. 22 at Fair Grounds and could have horses for both the Risen Star Stakes and the Rachel Alexandra Stakes, he said Wednesday.

Baffert could send Grade 1 winner Streaming for the Grade 3, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes, while Hoppertunity, a maiden winner, could start in the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes.

“It’s not etched in stone yet, but I’m looking at it seriously,” Baffert said.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Nashoba’s Gold, winner of a maiden race over 1 1/8 miles on turf in her debut last Saturday, will be pointed to the $150,000 Providencia Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on April 5, with a possible prep race in the interim, trainer Carla Gaines said Wednesday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Her versatile running style and the ability to handle a wet surface may give Dee Dee’s Comet an advantage in Friday’s featured second-level optional $30,000 claimer for New York-breds at Aqueduct.

Racing is scheduled to resume Friday after three dark days, but a winter storm that was to begin early Thursday morning and last until early Friday morning is likely to create a wet surface for Friday’s card, which include a $25,766 pick six carryover.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Martin Pedroza is expected to miss two months of racing after suffering a leg injury when he was unseated in a race Feb. 7, according to his agent, Richie Silverstein.

Pedroza remained hospitalized at nearby Arcadia Methodist Hospital on Wednesday, Silverstein said.

“They are waiting for the swelling to go down so they can re-X-ray the leg,” Silverstein said. “He’s just resting. He’s in pain.

“They’ve started the therapy with him walking with crutches. The prognosis remains eight weeks, give or take two.”