OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The seemingly never-ending New York winter was testing, to say the least. Many mornings – or afternoons – were not fit for man nor beast.

But through the snow, the ice, and the bitter cold, Uncle Sigh has endured and emerged as a legitimate Kentucky Derby candidate. Gutty runner-up finishes to Samraat over Aqueduct’s inner track in the Withers and Gotham – with the worst of the trips in both races – have Uncle Sigh one solid effort away from making it to Churchill Downs.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Champion 2-year-old filly She’s a Tiger will race outside California for the first time when she makes her 2014 debut in a seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Oaks Day, May 2.

Trainer Jeff Bonde said Tuesday he will target the $150,000 Eight Belles on the Oaks undercard for She’s a Tiger, disqualified from victory in her most recent start Nov. 2 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita, where she has been training regularly the past month.

Trainers at Golden Gate Fields are plotting a course for the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile scheduled for April 26, and a one-mile open allowance race on turf this Saturday may prove to be a perfect prep run.

Before that, however, another solid prep for the San Francisco Mile took place on the main track last Sunday, with Pepnic edging Hudson Landing by three-quarters of a length in a $62,500 optional claimer. The top two finishers raced for a tag, and Pepnic was claimed by Tim McCanna for David Taylor.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Nothing says Oaklawn Park’s annual Racing Festival of the South is right around the corner more than a champion putting in a major work, and that was the case Tuesday when Will Take Charge drilled for the Grade 2, $600,000 Oaklawn Handicap.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Wise Dan had the final breeze before his return to action next week, going five furlongs early Tuesday in 1:00.60 over the Polytrack surface at his Keeneland home base.

The work was the sixth for the reigning two-time Horse of the Year since he had his customary winter break. Trainer Charlie LoPresti confirmed afterward that he intends to run the 7-year-old Wise Dan in the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile on April 11 on the Keeneland turf.

Saddling four winners on a card is big enough, but it made for an even more significant day for trainer Robertino Diodoro at Turf Paradise on Monday, as he notched his 1,000th career Thoroughbred training win.

Diodoro, 40, entered Monday three wins shy of the plateau. He wasted no time as he won the opener with Meter Me Gone ($5.40). He only waited a couple of hours to hit the mark, winning the fifth with Yes It’s Snowing ($4) and then notching win No. 1,000 with Tribaltique ($4) in race 6.

He wasn't done. He won the nightcap (race 8) with Choo Choo Charlie ($7.20).

Sahara Sky will look to avenge his narrow loss in last year’s Carter Handicap when he travels across the country again to run in Saturday’s Grade 1 Carter, which this year had its purse raised to $500,000.

Sahara Sky rallied ferociously in the stretch in last year’s Carter but could not reel in Swagger Jack, who got the jump on Sahara Sky turning into the stretch. Sahara Sky got his revenge on Swagger Jack a month later when he beat him and all comers in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont.

Trainer Todd Pletcher will be seeking his fourth Wood Memorial victory in the last five years Saturday at Aqueduct, but for the first time in that span, he will not be running the favorite in the Grade 1 race.

“I’m going to go in totally relaxed this year,” Pletcher joked Sunday at Palm Meadows.

In the $1 million Wood, Pletcher will start Harpoon, a son of Tapit who has won just once in six career starts. Harpoon is owned by Let’s Go Stable, the same outfit that owned Verrazano, who won last year’s Wood as the 4-5 favorite.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Hoppertunity, the winner of the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 15, will be trainer Bob Baffert’s lone starter in Saturday’s $1 million Santa Anita Derby, he said on Monday.

Baffert, who has won the Santa Anita Derby a record six times, said he plans to run the unbeaten Bayern in the $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 12. He said plans are unclear for The Admiral, the winner of an allowance race at Santa Anita on March 16 who had been considered a Santa Anita Derby candidate.

Travis Stone, the race caller for Louisiana Downs, has been hired by Monmouth Park in New Jersey as the track’s new announcer for 2014, Monmouth announced Monday.

Stone, 30, will replace Larry Collmus, the longtime Monmouth Park race caller who was hired late last year as the new race caller for Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Stone has been Louisiana Downs’s full-time race caller since 2006. He also has called races at Churchill, Suffolk Downs, Calder Race Course, Golden Gate Fields, Lone Star Park, and Sam Houston Race Park.