ARCADIA, Calif. - There were eight horses in the Grade 2, $300,000 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday, but Flashback and Goldencents acted as if the race was theirs, and theirs alone, and it cost them.

Hear the Ghost ($13.80), benefiting from a silly speed duel between the 3-year-old colts heretofore acknowledged as the best Kentucky Derby prospects on the West Coast, rallied from fifth the final half of the 1 1/16-mile race and nailed Flashback near the wire to score a half-length win in this final major prep for next month's Santa Anita Derby.

NEW ORLEANS – Delaunay completed a sweep of the sprint stakes at the 2012-13 Fair Grounds meet with yet another easy victory Saturday in swift time in the $150,000 Duncan F. Kenner Stakes.

With jockey Rosie Napravnik having no problems whatsoever after her mount broke sharply from the outside post, Delaunay won for the fifth straight time after securing the lead down the backstretch and rolling on to finish 4 1/2 lengths clear of Gantry.

OLDSMAR, Fla. - Brazilian-bred Old Tune proved her initial win on U.S. soil was no fluke Saturday when she scored her second straight win in this country with a front-running victory over 11 rivals in the 15th running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Hillsborough Stakes.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – The margin was only three lengths. As if that matters.

Verrazano overcame adversity Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs, where the unbeaten colt affirmed his status as a leading Kentucky Derby contender with a solid, three-length victory in the Grade 2, 1 1/16-mile Tampa Bay Derby.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - It hasn’t been a great winter for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin’s 3-year-olds, with horses like Long River, Valid, and Transparent thus far disappointing in their stakes attempts.

There was a glimmer of hope last week when Elnaawi ran a respectable third in the Grade 3 Gotham.

NEW ORLEANS – Believe You Can had little more than a paid workout Saturday at Fair Grounds when strolling to a 5 3/4-length triumph in the fourth running of the $145,500 New Orleans Ladies.

The victory was the second in as many starts since Believe You Can, the 2012 Kentucky Oaks winner, returned from a layoff of more than seven months. She was the 1-20 favorite in a field of six fillies and mares.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - A pair of up-and-coming 3-year-olds, Declan’s Warrior and Narvaez, put on quite a show in Saturday’s third race at Gulfstream Park before finishing in a dead heat for win in the entry-level optional claiming dash decided at 7 1/2 furlongs.

The win was the second in three career starts for Declan’s Warrior, a son of Majestic Warrior trained by Nick Zito. Declan’s Warrior suffered his only setback at the hands of Park City earlier in the meet.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Grade 1-placed Noble Tune is headed to the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland following an impressive comeback win Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.

Runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf his most recent start Nov. 3 at Santa Anita, Noble Tune and jockey John Velazquez rallied from the back of the field to win the $30,000 one-mile turf allowance by a nose and give Velazquez his third win from his first three mounts Saturday at Tampa. Velazquez was scheduled to ride Tampa Bay Derby favorite Verrazano later Saturday.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The “Plesa Mile” is what the Calder clocking crew calls it, those one-mile maintenance works that have been a staple around Eddie Plesa Jr.’s barn for longer than the veteran trainer cares to remember.

The old “give-‘em-one” strategy can be a bane to a horseplayer’s existence. Trainer intent is often difficult to decipher when a horse is returning from a layoff and obviously pointing to a more important race in the future. Just what result the “prep” might yield is anyone’s guess and clearly makes gambling on that horse a tricky venture.