HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - A small fire in barn 2 at Oaklawn Park on Tuesday morning was quickly extinguished and there were no injuries to humans or horses.

The fire broke out between 6:45 and 7 a.m. in one of the upstairs sleeping rooms, according to David Longinotti, assistant general manager for racing at Oaklawn.

The horses were evacuated as Oaklawn maintenance crew members began putting out the fire. They were then joined by members of the Hot Springs Fire Department. The firetrucks left the stable area just before 8 a.m. Tuesday training was only briefly delayed.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Gulfstream Park set an attendance mark and fell just shy of matching a record handle on Florida Derby Day.

A crowd estimated at 20,382 packed the facility on Saturday, surpassing the previous mark of 18,224 (since the current facility opened in 2006) set here last year on Florida Derby Day. Total handle on the 13-race program was $24.67 million, including wagers from Latin America, all but equalling last year’s record $24.69 million handle. Ontrack handle of $1.37 million was up 7 percent over 2012.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. opted to pass a last chance to get Speak Logistics eligible for the Kentucky Derby when he decided to forgo the Grade 1 Blue Grass on April 13 for Saturday’s $250,000 Calder Derby. Speak Logistics, who has earned 11 Derby qualifying points, will be the heavy favorite to win the opening-day feature at Calder.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Ian Wilkes announced that his Grade 1 winner Capt. Candyman Can has been retired following his sixth-place finish in Saturday’s Sir Shackleton Stakes, a race he’d won here two years earlier.

Capt. Candyman Can, now 7, gave Wilkes the first Grade 1 win of his career when he was placed first on a disqualification in the King’s Bishop at Saratoga in August 2009.

“He bled in the race today, and we don’t want to do anything to hurt this horse,” Wilkes said. “He’s been a lot of fun for us, and he holds a special place in my heart.”

ARCADIA, Calif. - Game On Dude won the Santa Anita Handicap for the second time last month, and he continues to train strongly in preparation for his next start, the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic on April 20. On Monday morning at Santa Anita, he went an easy half-mile in 47.40 seconds under regular rider Mike Smith, who was just back from riding Royal Delta in the Dubai World Cup.

Game On Dude went effortlessly, by himself.

“He’s doing so good,” said his trainer, Bob Baffert.

Baffert double-teaming Beholder

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Lost among all the hoopla surrounding the Florida Derby and all the other graded stakes action here Saturday was the outstanding training job turned in by Kiaran McLaughlin to bring Rattlesnake Bridge back from a 16-month hiatus to register a game head decision over Rightfully So going one mile under second-level optional-claiming conditions.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Florida Derby has come and gone, and the 2012-13 Gulfstream meeting is in the home stretch, but that doesn’t mean the good racing is over by any stretch of the imagination.

Wednesday’s card, one of just three left in the meet, features a $70,000 optional claimer that brings together Grade 3 winner Heavenly Landing and the multiple graded stakes-placed Julie’s Love going a mile on the turf.

A day after he came within a neck of winning the $1 million Louisiana Derby with Mylute, trainer Tom Amoss won four races on Sunday’s closing-day card at Fair Grounds to tie Steve Asmussen for the 2012-13 training title.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The Big Apple’s final harbingers of spring arrive this week when the Mets and Yankees begin their seasons and turf racing returns to Aqueduct on Wednesday.

The three scheduled grass races, all at 1 1/16 miles and carded as the fifth, seventh, and ninth races, are part of a pick six with a carryover of $34,136 courtesy of upset victories by Christiesborntorun ($88.50) and Trixie Star ($154) on Saturday.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct may be Normandy Invasion’s last chance to make the Kentucky Derby, but it could be the first serious opportunity for his trainer, Chad Brown, to make it to America’s most prestigious horse race.