HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Ken McPeek had to rush off and catch a flight to Kentucky on Friday morning, but he left town with a big smile on his face after watching his Florida Derby hopeful, Frac Daddy, work five furlongs in 1:00.24 about an hour earlier at Gulfstream Park.

With jockey Corey Lanerie aboard, Frac Daddy broke off a couple of lengths behind stablemate Kid Twist, posting splits of 24.17 seconds and 36.34 before pulling three lengths clear at the wire and galloping out six furlongs in 1:13.31.

Though Saginaw held on for a dead-heat win with Awesome Vision in Thursday’s Compelling Word Stakes, trainer David Jacobson will be happy to get his 7-year-old New York-bred gelding back to one-turn races.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Lady of Shamrock’s 2013 campaign could end the same place it begins – on the Santa Anita turf course where she makes her first start of the season Sunday in the Grade 2, $150,000 Santa Ana Stakes.

Six fillies and mares entered the 1 1/8-mile Santa Ana, and trainer John Sadler is confident Grade 1 winner Lady of Shamrock will fire fresh in her first start since Nov. 2.

NEW ORLEANS – It’s not surprising that trainer Todd Pletcher will be well represented in the four Grade 2 stakes on Louisiana Derby Day.

Those races – the Louisiana Derby, Fair Grounds Oaks, New Orleans Handicap, and Mervin Muniz Memorial Handicap – have been good to Pletcher. He and the late Bobby Frankel are the only trainers who have won all four.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Maybe it was a result of being matched up with a graded stakes-winning sprinter. Maybe it was the result of his connections wanting to do a little more with him. Or maybe it was simply a result of just how good Vyjack is doing right now.

Whatever it was, Vyjack, the undefeated 3-year-old, turned in a sensational five-furlong workout Friday morning at Aqueduct in preparation for a start in the $1 million Wood Memorial here on April 6.

As the only graded stakes winner in the field, Shakin It Up is the most accomplished horse in the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby on Sunday at Sunland Park, but he will be making his first start around two turns while coming out of a race whose form is debatable.

Where else to look? Perhaps not that far away.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After chasing a mind-boggling 42-second-and-change opening half-mile split in the Gulfstream Park Sprint Handicap, Silver Cloud should find the competition a lot less imposing when he takes on optional-claiming opposition in Sunday’s $62,100 feature, carded for five furlongs on the grass at Gulfstream Park. The race replaces the scheduled main event, the Lord Avie Stakes for 3-year-olds on the main track, which failed to fill.

West Virginia trainer Doug Shanyfelt has been suspended one year after the stewards at the Charles Town Races deemed him guilty this week of circumventing the state’s racing rules by serving as a “program trainer” for a fellow trainer who was under suspension.

Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens will be among the many top riders competing throughout Keeneland and into Kentucky Derby week at Churchill. His agent, Craig O’Bryan, said this week that Stevens will return to Kentucky after riding next weekend in Dubai.

Stevens, 50, retired from the saddle in November 2005, with his last ride coming at Churchill. He came out of retirement to great fanfare in January at Santa Anita and has a 12-for-83 record since returning.

Turcotte film premiere Derby week

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Saginaw won again Thursday, but this time he had to share.

Despite seeming home free on an Aqueduct inner track that was favoring his front-running tactics, Saginaw wound up in a dead heat for win with the late-running Awesome Vision in Thursday’s $75,000 Compelling Word Stakes. It was a half-length back to third-place finisher Johannesburg Smile.