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.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – On Saturday, the Sunshine State’s Thoroughbred breeding industry will be in the spotlight at Tampa Bay Downs as the 12th annual Florida Cup, featuring Florida-bred runners, tops the weekend program.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Tapiture had a significant workout Monday for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby, breezing five furlongs in company in 1:00.80 at his Oaklawn Park base. He could go favored in the Arkansas Derby, a 1 1/8-mile race that closes out the meet April 12.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Saturday’s $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks has a field of five probable starters – Arethusa, Artemis, Fashion Plate, Honey Ride, and Ria Antonia.

Fashion Plate won the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes in February. Ria Antonia finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies here last fall but was promoted to first when She’s a Tiger was disqualified for causing interference in deep stretch.

The Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks, run over 1 1/16 miles, will be Ria Antonia’s first start for trainer Bob Baffert.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Hoppertunity, the winner of the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 15, worked five furlongs in 1:01.20 at Santa Anita on Sunday, leading trainer Bob Baffert to deem the colt a “possibility” for Saturday’s $1 million Santa Anita Derby.

Hoppertunity has won 2 of 4 starts and earned $410,720 for owners Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman. By Any Given Saturday, Hoppertunity was fourth in his stakes debut in the Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds on Feb. 22 and rebounded to win the Rebel Stakes over 1 1/16 miles by a half-length.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The name Apollo will be sure to  surface at least a couple of hundred times between now and Kentucky Derby Day following Constitution’s game neck decision over Wildcat Red in Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park.

That’s because Constitution will enter the Derby having made only three starts and none before launching his career with an impressive seven-furlong maiden special weight victory here Jan. 11. 

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – About 4 1/2 hours before trainer Todd Pletcher watched Constitution fight his way into the Kentucky Derby, he witnessed In Tune do the same for the Kentucky Oaks.

In her stakes debut, In Tune held off a prolonged challenge from House Rules to win the Grade 2, $300,000 Gulfstream Oaks by a neck to remain undefeated in three career starts and secure a spot in the $1 million Kentucky Oaks on May 2.