Two potential New Orleans Handicap starters are being pointed to other races, their trainers said Monday. Mylute, who hasn’t raced since the Jim Dandy Stakes last summer, will run in an allowance race on Thursday at Fair Grounds. Revolutionary, seventh in the Donn Handicap, will make his next start in the Oaklawn Handicap, trainer Todd Pletcher said in a text message.

The New Orleans Handicap still will have a good field, headed by Palace Malice, Normandy Invasion, and Mineshaft Handicap winner Bradester.

Five allowance races

Trainer Mike Stidham sent Ground Transport out on the road this past weekend to get the 4-year-old Big Brown colt an elusive first stakes victory.

Ground Transport shipped to Laurel, set a soft pace, and comfortably won the $100,000 Johnson Memorial on Saturday over Mr Palmer, his fourth victory but first outside the maiden or allowance ranks. Ground Transport had finished second in the Tenacious Handicap to Prayer for Relief and fourth in the Mineshaft Handicap earlier in the Fair Grounds meet.

Apprentice Michael Ritvo, the son of Gulfstream Park president and general manager Tim Ritvo and trainer Kathy Ritvo, won for the first time in his riding career with just his second mount when guiding Little Daniella to a front-running victory in Sunday’s second race.

“This was 10 times better than I thought; there’s no other experience like it,” said Ritvo, 19, who has been working and galloping horses at Gulfstream for the past two months.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – At 84, Allen Jerkens moves a little slower and has considerably fewer horses in his barn than he had when he last won the race now known as the Gulfstream Park Oaks with Teammate in 2006. But “The Chief” still knows what to do when he gets his hands on a good horse, one like House Rules, who could have Jerkens back in the winner’s circle after the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks on Saturday.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – A bone chip dashed any chance Tulira Castle had of competing in last year’s Triple Crown races, but now the 4-year-old is starting to make it look like trainer Jim DiVito knew what he had when he tried the War Pass colt against top company last winter in the Grade 3 Holy Bull and Swale stakes.

Tulira Castle blew by the leaders while leaving the second turn of Saturday’s 1 1/16-mile, $58,800 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs and scored by 2 3/4 lengths in a decent field to improve to 2 for 2 this year.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Talk about attrition. Since Churchill Downs offered its earliest-ever Kentucky Derby Future Wager pool in late November, only two horses have been listed in all four pools toward the 2014 Derby – Cairo Prince and Strong Mandate.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Leah Gyarmati remains on the fence about running Jerome Stakes winner Noble Moon in the Wood Memorial.

On Sunday, Noble Moon worked a mile in 1:46.05 in company with Gyarmati’s Grade 1-winning filly Sweet Reason.

While Sweet Reason, who won an allowance race in her 3-year-old debut on March 7, is a definite for the Grade 2, $300,000 Gazelle on April 5, Gyarmati said, “I am not committing” Noble Moon to the Wood at this point.

Princess of Sylmar, the four-time Grade 1 winning 3-year-old filly of 2013, had her first local workout Monday morning, breezing a half-mile in 49.78 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.

Princess of Sylmar, who has been based in south Florida for most of the winter, worked inside of stablemate Violet Hour. The two broke off together and went an opening quarter-mile in 24.30 seconds. Princes of Sylmar, under Annie Finney, was going the easier of the two in the stretch and galloped out five furlongs in 1:03.75 and six furlongs in 1:19.22.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – General a Rod turned down the backstretch shortly after the renovation break Sunday, making his way to the five-furlong marker to begin his final major prep for Saturday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby. But as he reached the pole, the Fountain of Youth Stakes runner-up suddenly found himself with some unexpected company, as he was joined by a member of the Gamaliel Vazquez stable.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The eye-catching 6 1/4-length allowance victory by the New York-bred Effinex at Aqueduct on Sunday was special to Russell Cohen, the colt’s breeder, on several levels.

First, as a veterinarian for 27 years and a breeder for nearly as long, Cohen takes great pride in running horses in his stable without medication. Effinex, who is owned by the Tri-Bone Stables of Cohen’s mother, Bernice, does not run on Lasix, and Cohen said that except for one shot of Adequan, a medication that helps maintain cartilage, the horse has never been treated with anything.