Godolphin and trainer Brad Cox will not be wasting any time determining how the talented 2-year-old colt Nash stacks up in stakes competition.

Nash scored a second-start maiden win Nov. 12 at Churchill Downs and is scheduled to have his third outing Dec. 23 at Fair Grounds in the $100,000 Gun Runner Stakes.

It’s difficult imagining Nash won’t be favored in the Gun Runner. A 2-year-old dirt route in December offering a $100,000 purse essentially is a glorified allowance race, and Nash has signaled he could be much more than merely an allowance horse.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Steve Asmussen might have the two fastest horses on the grounds at Oaklawn Park. Skelly put up a meet-high Beyer Speed Figure of 105 last season in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap and Jaxon Traveler recently covered six furlongs in a blazing 1:07.37 winning the $100,000 Zia Park Sprint.

Skelly was put away after winning the Speightstown Sprint in May at Lone Star Park in order to await the new season at Oaklawn. The horse has won his last five starts, with four coming at Oaklawn.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – It’s the Christmas gift that keeps giving.

The binoculars Matt Dinerman received from an aunt and uncle as a teenager are the same set he will be using Friday when he announces his first race at Oaklawn Park.

“They’re the ones I call the races with,” said the meet’s new voice.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park will launch the most lucrative winter meet in the nation on Friday, when it rolls out a racing program projected to average $900,000 a day in purses.

The 66-day meet runs through May 4.

The track-record riches come courtesy of gains in handle and a thriving casino. They include a 47-race stakes schedule worth $16.2 million. The centerpiece is the Arkansas Derby on March 30. Its purse has been boosted to $1.5 million in a move that puts its value at the same level as this year’s Preakness.

The stable area at Oaklawn Park has been filling up quicker than past meets and the horse population is reflected in entries for the Arkansas track’s opening weekend cards Friday and Saturday.

Oaklawn drew 109 horses for its 10-race card Friday, with four runners listed as also-eligibles for various races. The track will put on another 10 races Saturday with 121 horses entered, including nine also-eligibles.

Oaklawn had more than 900 horses already on the grounds in the days leading up to the first day of entries last Friday, according to track president Lou Cella.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Javier Castellano has dropped his appeal of a three-day suspension handed him by the New York stewards and will sit out Thursday through Saturday.

Castellano was given the suspension for his ride on Sterling Silver, who crossed the wire first in the Grade 2, $250,000 Gallant Bloom Stakes on Oct. 1, but was deemed to have caused interference with the third-place finisher Caramel Swirl, who was elevated from third to first. Jose Lezcano, aboard the runner-up Headland, who was disqualified from second and placed third, has already served a three-day suspension.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The Parx-based trainer Butch Reid won two stakes at Aqueduct over the weekend and he plans to try and win a few more over the next month.

On Sunday, Morning Matcha won the $125,000 Statue of Liberty Stakes for progeny of New York stallions. On Saturday, Dr B won the Grade 3 Go for Wand Stakes for the second consecutive year.

This Saturday, Reid will be back for more when he sends out Disco Ebo in the $120,000 Garland of Roses for fillies and mares at six furlongs.

DEL MAR, Calif. – An all-Chad Brown superfecta in a Grade 1 race for fillies and mares on turf is becoming an annual event.

On Sunday at Del Mar, the 3-year-old filly Surge Capacity caught stablemate Fluffy Socks near the finish of the $303,500 Matriarch Stakes at a mile, with two other Brown-trained runners, Beaute Cachee and Whitebeam, finishing third and fourth. Those were Brown’s only runners in the 12-horse field.

“All four ran really well,” Brown said late Sunday afternoon.