INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Handicappers overestimated Esentepe during the winter-spring meet at Santa Anita, where the European import lost twice as the favorite in turf allowances.

Thursday at Betfair Hollywood Park, she changes surfaces while trying to avoid being labeled a classic underachiever. Esentepe tops the race-7 feature, a main-track allowance that is the richest on the card but from a wagering perspective the least attractive.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Midnight Lucky, fifth in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs last Friday, will be pointed to the $300,000 Acorn Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over a mile at Belmont Park on May 27, according to trainer Bob Baffert.

Owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman, Midnight Lucky was beaten for the first time in her three-race career in the Kentucky Oaks, finishing nine lengths behind upset winner Princess of Sylmar.

While his former boss, trainer D. Wayne Lukas, and other colleagues make plans for Pimlico, trainer Dallas Stewart is enjoying the afterglow of a Derby in which he saddled the longshot runner-up, Golden Soul.

Stewart said he was “as proud as can be” of the way Golden Soul closed in the final quarter-mile to outfinish Revolutionary, Normandy Invasion, and Mylute for the $400,000 second-place prize.

“Nobody was going to beat the winner [Orb], not the way he ran,” Stewart said. “For a horse who wasn’t even supposed to make the race, we had a pretty good result.”

Golden Gate Fields general manager Joe Morris likes to be in the thick of the action, and he’ll have plenty of action in his new job as president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California. Morris will assume his new role June 16 after the end of the current Golden Gate Fields meeting.

Delaunay, a four-length winner of the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on the Derby undercard for owner Maggi Moss, will get a brief respite before undertaking a campaign designed to get him to the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Sprint in peak form, trainer Tom Amoss said.

“I wish the Breeders’ Cup was in four weeks,” Amoss said. “It’s not, so we’ll work backward from it and try to figure the best way to get there.”

Delaunay earned a 109 Beyer Speed Figure on Saturday, his sixth straight triple-digit mark.

ELMONT, N.Y. – A familiar cast of characters reconvenes in Thursday’s $85,000 Corma Ray overnight stakes for older New York-breds, including four horses whom David Jacobson either currently trains or used to train.

Jacobson entered Be Bullish and Uncle T Seven in the seven-furlong race. Two others formerly under his tutelage, Fiddlers Afleet and Ground Force, figure to make their presence felt as well.

Also entered in the competitive sprint were likely favorite Johannesburg Smile; last year’s Hudson Stakes winner, Mine Over Matter; and Cap the Moment.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ken McPeek said his Kentucky Oaks starter, Pure Fun, will be sidelined indefinitely after being diagnosed with what he described as “an ankle issue” following the filly’s sixth-place finish Friday in the filly classic at Churchill Downs.

At 3, Pure Fun has not returned to the form that carried her to victory in the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet in December.

“It’s nothing major, and we’re still trying to determine whether it’ll require surgery or not,” McPeek said earlier this week.

As of Tuesday, the prospective Preakness field was holding steady at 12 3-year-olds following one addition and one subtraction.

Maryland Jockey Club officials reported early Tuesday that trainer D. Wayne Lukas will run Titletown Five in the Preakness, a fact later confirmed by David Miller, a co-owner of the colt. That gives Lukas a third Preakness runner, along with Oxbow and Will Take Charge.

Within minutes of the Titletown Five announcement, trainer Ken McPeek said via Twitter that he was withdrawing Bellarmine from consideration for the Preakness.

How the 139th Kentucky Derby unfolded Saturday, May 4, at Churchill Downs:

Normandy Invasion finds himself in tight shortly after the break as he gets squeezed between Golden Soul and Mylute while Orb gets away cleanly from the auxiliary starting gate. [Photo: Jenny Burgos]

Lovely Syn made it 3 for 3 with an impressive 9 1/2-length victory in Sunday’s $100,000 Park Avenue Division of the New York Stallion Stakes and most likely will make her next start in the $125,000 Bouwerie Stakes on June 1.

All of Lovely Syn’s wins have come sprinting, and the Bouwerie Stakes is at seven furlongs, but trainer Dominick Schettino hasn’t ruled out stretching out Lovely Syn in distance at some point.

“We’ll stretch her out little by little,” Schettino said. “Watching her gallop out and the way she does things, we’re hoping she can go further.”