Golden Gate Fields will begin using its turf course for the first time this year in early April at the earliest, according to racing secretary Steve Martinelli.

The course has not been used since the first weekend of December. The track does not race on the surface through winter months because of wet conditions in Northern California.

In 2022, a year with drier conditions, the course opened in mid-March. Last year, the course was not used for the first time until early April because of a wet winter. The same conditions have occurred this year.

Fresh from a win in Sunday’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, Newgate was back on the track at Santa Anita on Thursday with a potential trip to Dubai later this month a viable option, trainer Bob Baffert said.

“He came out of the race really well,” Baffert said. “He went back to the track and looks sharp.

“Now, he’s ready. He’s a fleshy horse. Racing will be good for him.

The five-time stakes winner Closing Remarks has been retired after two disappointing performances this winter at Santa Anita.

Closing Remarks finished sixth in the Grade 3 Megahertz Stakes on Feb. 3 and the Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes last Sunday, both one-mile turf races for fillies and mares.

She was sent to owner and breeder John Harris’s farm in Coalinga, Calif., earlier this week, trainer Carla Gaines said.

Leah Gyarmati is no longer licensed to train horses in New York, and the New York Racing Association has revoked her stalls at Belmont Park after separate incidents involving alcohol and alleged lack of attention to an injured horse.

According to the New York Gaming Commission website, Gyarmati voluntarily surrendered her license on March 1. Horses she had entered at Aqueduct last weekend were ordered scratched by the stewards. The 12 horses under her care have been transferred to trainer Marcelo Arenas, a former assistant of Gyarmati’s who has been on his own since 2021.

The big girl is back at the track. 

Idiomatic, the gigantic 5-year-old Eclipse-winning mare who towered over the older female dirt-route division during 2023 to the extent she was a finalist for Horse of the Year, is stabled with trainer Brad Cox’s string at Fair Grounds following a winter break at the Kentucky property of her owner and breeder, Juddmonte Farms. 

Idiomatic, in fact, has been back with Cox long enough that she had a very minor breeze last weekend, though the work was slow enough it didn’t make the official tab.  

Woodbine has announced a 2024 stakes schedule that includes 38 graded events, four of which are Grade 1s. The schedule does not include the Canadian International, which has been shelved for the year.

The 165th running of the $1 million King’s Plate has been moved from a Sunday to a Saturday this year, on Aug. 17, and will launch the 2024 Canadian Triple Crown. The $400,000 Prince of Wales, a 1 3/16-mile dirt route, goes Sept. 10 at Fort Erie. The $400,000 Breeders’ over 1 1/2 miles on turf concludes the series on Sept. 29 at Woodbine.

Easter is a candidate for the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 27, while Newgrange may start in the $12 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on March 30 after losses in major stakes at Santa Anita on Sunday.

Newgrange, the winner of two Grade 2 stakes in December and January, finished sixth as the 3-1 favorite in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap. Newgrange was as close as second on the turn before fading in the stretch under jockey Victor Espinoza.

A minor injury has ended the racing career of the multiple graded stakes winner Queen Goddess, days before an expected start in Saturday’s Grade 1 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.

Queen Goddess is being sent to Kentucky this week and will be bred to Into Mischief, according to Aron Wellman, the president of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, which owns the 6-year-old mare with Gary Barber.

The four-time stakes winner Ruby Nell is booked to have her first start in a Grade 1 since August in the $600,000 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland on April 13 after winning for the first time this year in Sunday’s Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes at Santa Anita.

The Jenny Wiley Stakes, run at 1 1/16 miles on turf, is annually one of the toughest races of the spring for older fillies and mares on grass.

“We’ll try something better,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “She’s still progressing.”