HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Kathy Ritvo made it official early Friday afternoon when she confirmed that Gulfstream Park’s Sunshine Millions Classic will be the starting point for Mucho Macho Man’s 2014 campaign. The Sunshine Millions Classic will be decided at 1 1/8 miles as the marquee event on the $1.3 million Sunshine Millions card Jan. 18.

Mucho Macho Man, who has not started since winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic, is a finalist for an Eclipse Award as the top older male of 2013. The Eclipse ceremonies will be held at Gulfstream several hours after the Sunshine Classic.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – On Fire Baby will return to the Oaklawn Park stable of trainer Gary Hartlage in the very near future, with the objective a defense of her title in the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap.

“In two to three weeks, she’ll be here,” said Hartlage, who trains On Fire Baby for her breeder, Anita Cauley. “Our goal is to make the Azeri and the Apple Blossom.”

The Azeri, which has been upgraded from a Grade 3 to Grade 2 and boosted in value from $150,000 to $200,000, will be run at Oaklawn on March 5. The Apple Blossom is April 11.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – This has been a pretty good week for apprentice jockey Taylor Rice.

On Monday, her alma mater, Florida State University, won the national championship in college football.

Since then, Rice has made a couple of trips to the Aqueduct winner’s circle as she tries to make an imprint on the New York Racing Association circuit.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The field for the Grade 3 Holy Bull on Jan. 25, the first major test for Kentucky Derby hopefuls here this winter, continues to take shape, with one of the starters likely to be Conquest Titan, a son of Birdstone who closed his 2-year-old campaign with an eye-catching last-to-first allowance win at Churchill Downs.

Fair Grounds continues to be plagued by problems with its turf course, a situation that came to a chaotic head during the Thursday race card.

Though there has been no significant rainfall at Fair Grounds since Dec. 30, the turf was used for only two races last weekend, on Jan. 4 and Jan. 5. Fair Grounds initially planned to use the course as scheduled on Sunday, Jan. 5, but after one race, riders expressed concern with horses slipping on the far turn, and grass racing on a course termed yielding was abandoned.

NEW ORLEANS – The field for the Lecomte, the first two-turn stakes prep for the Louisiana Derby, is taking shape slowly.

As of Thursday, Fair Grounds stakes coordinator Scott Jones listed Albano, Gold Hawk, Got Shades, Rainbow Trip, Roman Unbridled, and Vicar’s in Trouble as 3-year-olds headed to the Lecomte. Jones said he expects the field to grow before entries are taken Wednesday for that Grade 3 race on Jan. 18.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Cyclometer, winner of the Midnight Lute Stakes on Jan. 4, will start in the $125,000 California Cup Sprint over six furlongs Jan. 25, according to Karen Headley, assistant trainer to her father, Bruce.

Cyclometer won his first stakes in the Midnight Lute over six furlongs. A 6-year-old horse by Cyclotron, Cyclometer has won 5 of 17 starts and earned $330,254.

The Jan. 25 program will include Electric Eddie, who runs in the $250,000 California Cup Derby for statebreds over 1 1/16 miles.

Concerned parent that he is, Mike Battaglia has warned his son, Bret, about the perils of working around the racetrack.

“My dad gambled and did fairly well, and so have I,” the elder Battaglia said. “But we all know a lot of people who haven’t, so I’ve tried to teach Bret the best I can.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux, a fixture in Southern California in the 1990s and early 2000s, will ride at Santa Anita on the weekend of Jan. 25-26 with an eye on a possible return to this circuit, he said Thursday.

“I’ll test the waters on the 25th and 26th,” Desormeaux said in a brief phone interview from Florida. “I would move back to California if I think I have the proper business.”

Runaway Wagon, a Grade 2-winning Quarter Horse, will make a significant cutback in distance at Louisiana Downs on Saturday, when he runs in the $15,000 Harrah’s Dash. The 250-yard race is one of two stakes on the first card of the track’s meet for Quarter Horses. The 46-date season will run through March 26.