HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Locked and Victory Avenue, two of the top three choices on the morning line for Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park were both scratched from the race Saturday morning by their connections.

Merit, who ran second in an allowance race on Friday, was obviously also scratched, reducing the field for the key Kentucky Derby prep race to six horses.

Locked, the 5-2 second choice, was scratched by trainer Todd Pletcher after he trained Saturday morning at Palm Beach Downs.

Woodbine will introduce a starter bonus for trainers at the 2024 Thoroughbred meet, excluding stakes races.

A bonus of $50 will be paid to trainers who start a horse in an overnight race that finishes outside of the top five positions.

Graded stakes winners Adare Manor and Desert Dawn, and the recent allowance race winner Sweet Azteca worked five furlongs at Santa Anita on Friday in advance of expected starts in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile on March 9.

Adare Manor, who has not raced since a seventh-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in November, and Sweet Azteca, who won an allowance race by 12 lengths on Feb. 2, were timed in 59 seconds.

Desert Dawn, who won the Grade 3 La Canada Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Jan. 20, was timed in 59.80 seconds.

The Tapeta Footings synthetic surface on the infield training track at Santa Anita, installed in recent months at a cost of approximately $8 million, will open on a limited basis on Saturday for horses entered to race on Sunday and Monday, track officials said on Friday.

Activity will be limited to jogging on Saturday, officials said.

Randolph Cutshaw, a retired jockey, trainer, and agent who later in his career spent time working as the "colors man” at Fair Grounds, died Feb. 18 in Williamsburg, Va., according to his wife, Melodie Cutshaw. He was 84.

Cutshaw died in a hospice house, said Melodie Cutshaw.

“He was terminally ill with three forms of cancer,” she said.

Cutshaw was born in Versailles, Ky. He made his way onto the backstretch before he was old enough to be licensed in what would become a lifelong career path.

Anisette, the winner of two Grade 1 races for 3-year-old fillies in 2023, has returned to trainer Leonard Powell’s stable after an early winter break.

First or second in all six of her starts last year, Anisette may have her 4-year-old debut in the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita on May 27, Powell said.

Anisette was turned out after winning the Grade 1 American Oaks at 1 1/4 miles on turf as the 3-5 favorite on Dec. 26.

“We’ll probably have her ready in May,” Powell said.

Endlessly won his 3-year-old debut in the El Camino Real Derby on the synthetic track at Golden Gate Fields Feb. 10 and will remain on that type of surface for his next scheduled start, the Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park March 23, trainer Michael McCarthy wrote in a text message Thursday.

On Thursday at Santa Anita, Endlessly worked a half-mile in 48.60 seconds on dirt, his first major exercise since the El Camino Real Derby.

The $700,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks is run at 1 1/8 miles, and is a key prep for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 4.