INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Majestic Stride won his first stakes in Thursday’s $100,000 Vernon Underwood for sprinters at Betfair Hollywood Park.

It was not the first milestone of the 4-year-old gelding’s career.

Majestic Stride missed more than 18 months of racing from February 2012 to September of this year. Trainer Jeff Bonde said Majestic Stride was sidelined by a severe virus that affected his internal organs. At the depth of that illness, there was fear that Majestic Stride would not survive. Just getting Majestic Stride back to the races was satisfying to Bonde.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Owner Willis Horton said he very much wants to run Will Take Charge next year as a 4-year-old and that his ideal scenario is a deal with a breeding farm allowing that to happen.

Horton, who has been heavily wooed by several prominent farms to sell Will Take Charge for future stud purposes, said he would like to settle the issue this week, with him retaining at least a minority share while getting to campaign the colt for another year.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – When trainer Marcus Vitali put up $115,000 of owner Caroline Vogel’s money to purchase the 3-year-old gelding Valid at the Fasig-Tipton mixed sale in October at Saratoga, he hoped to be getting a horse who might prove “useful” during the Gulfstream Park winter meet. What he got is a horse who ran off the screen to a 23 1/4-length optional-claiming win and earned a whopping 107 Beyer Speed Figure here last Saturday.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jockey Tyler Baze, who has not ridden since June after failing a Breathalyzer test, is scheduled to meet with Hollywood Park stewards on Dec. 7 in an attempt to resume riding.

NEW ORLEANS – Veteran Fair Grounds trainer Mike Burgess has gone private, and he’s off and running in his new position.

In late August, Burgess, 45, took over as the private trainer for Oak Leaf, the racing operation of Royce Roberts. After being based at Fair Grounds in previous seasons with a public stable, Burgess has become strictly a ship-in trainer. He lives at the Oak Leaf Training Center, Roberts’s 140-acre facility in Tyler, Texas. Burgess said he’s training 18 horses for Roberts, with five more on the way.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It’s only three wins, and they came in mid- to low-level claiming races, but it’s a start. Robert Barbara hopes it’s the start of something big.

Barbara, who has trained several graded stakes winners in his career, has fallen on hard times during the last two years professionally and personally. Re-energized and refocused, Barbara believes he is ready to re-emerge as a factor on the New York Racing Association circuit.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – An illness will prevent Gabriel Charles from starting in Sunday’s $250,000 Hollywood Derby at Betfair Hollywood Park. Fortunately for owners Sam Britt and Michael House and trainer Jeff Mullins, they have a backup horse in the stakes winner Dry Summer.

Mullins said Friday that Gabriel Charles was found to be sick Thursday, the morning entries were taken for the Hollywood Derby.

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INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Procurement will start in the $200,000 Sir Beaufort Stakes over a mile on turf at Santa Anita on Dec. 26 after winning an allowance race on Thursday, his third win of the year.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Steve Margolis is one of those “act like you’ve been there before” trainers who rarely shows much emotion following a victory, but he just couldn’t help himself Thursday after Wine Princess made her career finale a winning one in the Grade 2 Falls City Handicap at Churchill Downs.

Margolis, along with his wife, Sue, celebrated far more outwardly than normal following the Falls City, as did Becky and Jim Winemiller, who in October sold Wine Princess for post-racing purposes to Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm for an undisclosed amount.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The three shippers in Sunday’s $150,000 Bessarabian Stakes – Purely Hot, Queen’s Award, and Strike the Moon – all look like contenders in the seven-furlong sprint, which drew a mixed bag of 12 fillies and mares.