NEW ORLEANS – Having landed the mount on Ria Antonia for the Rachel Alexandra, Joe Talamo will be riding at Fair Grounds for the first time since winning the riding title as an apprentice seven years ago.

The Grade 3 Rachel Alexandra for 3-year-old fillies will be among five stakes, four of them graded, on Feb. 22. That day’s feature will be the Grade 2 Risen Star, the final local stakes prep for the Louisiana Derby.

Black Onyx, unraced since winning the Spiral Stakes last March, has had his comeback delayed after a minor setback several weeks ago at Palm Meadows.

“It was the same ankle he hurt right before the Derby,” trainer Kelly Breen said. “We sent him up to Ocala for a little rest. I’m hoping to get him back here before the end of the month.”

Trainer Marcus Vitali said Lochte came out of his victory in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap last weekend in good shape and that he and owner Carolyn Vogel are looking for a suitable race for their new stable star.

Lochte, a stunning 2  3/4-length winner at 39-1, was purchased for $60,000 at auction last October at Saratoga by Vogel’s Crossed Sabres Farm. Lochte, 4, was still a maiden after five tries but now has won three times in five starts for Vitali, a 52-year-old Rhode Island native who had never won a graded race in 25 years of training before this one.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Stephanie’s Kitten most likely will make her seasonal debut at Tampa Bay Downs in the Grade 3, $150,000 Hillsborough, a 1 1/8-mile turf race March 8, according to trainer Chad Brown.

“She’s been training very well, and we’re looking forward to having her back to the races,” Brown said this week from Palm Meadows.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Miss Serendipity, a Group 1 winner in Argentina who was a troubled fourth in her American debut in the Paseana Stakes on Jan. 12, worked a half-mile in 48.40 seconds on turf Thursday.

Trained by Ron McAnally, Miss Serendipity is scheduled to start in Monday’s $200,000 Buena Vista Stakes over a mile on turf.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Papa Turf chased two of California’s finest young sprinters in his first two stakes appearances. His third start in a stakes, in Sunday’s $200,000 San Vicente for 3-year-olds over seven furlongs, might be easier.

Back in November, Papa Turf ran in the Grade 3 Hollywood Prevue Stakes at Hollywood Park, finishing 14 1/4 lengths behind Shared Belief. Shared Belief later won the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity and was named champion 2-year-old male of 2013.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Susans Express can prove in Saturday’s $75,000 Sweet Life Stakes that her upset win in the $200,250 California Cup Oaks at Santa Anita on Jan. 25 wasn’t a fluke.

At 65-1, Susans Express was the longest shot in a field of 14 in the Cal Cup Oaks, a one-mile turf race she won by 1 1/4 lengths. The Sweet Life will be the first start in a turf sprint for Susans Express and her first stakes against open company.

“She’s in good shape,” trainer Jorge Periban said. “This is against open company. It will be a tough race.”

The beefed up Belmont Park spring/summer stakes schedule isn’t confined to Belmont Stakes Day.

One week after announcing that the June 7 Belmont Stakes Day card will be the second-richest program on the North American calendar, the New York Racing Association released the entire spring/summer schedule that will present 62 stakes worth $17.95 million in purses – including six races worth at least $1 million. In 2013, Belmont’s spring/summer meet offered 37 stakes worth $9.3 million with only the Belmont Stakes worth $1 million.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine Entertainment Group announced Thursday that the role of Steve Lym, Woodbine’s director of Thoroughbred racing, has been expanded to include the operational responsibilities for the backstretch.

Lym will no longer act as racing secretary, a position he has held since 2003. The search for his replacement is under way.

“My goal is to provide the horsepeople of Woodbine with the best environment for training and racing this year and beyond,” Lym said.

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.