Trainer Ken McPeek has confirmed Golden Ticket for the Grade 3 Mineshaft Handicap, one of the secondary features on the Louisiana Derby Preview card. Golden Ticket, a dead-heat winner of the Travers in August, most recently was an easy winner of a second-level optional claiming race at Gulfstream Park and will come into the 1 1/16-mile race with four weeks between starts.

McPeek said Golden Ticket will ship from south Florida two days before the race, along with others coming from that region for the big day. Jimmy Graham will have the mount.

Ultimate Eagle, who was pulled up and vanned off in the $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park last weekend because of a grabbed quarter, was flown to trainer Mike Pender’s base at Hollywood Park on Wednesday to continue his recovery.

Pender said that Ultimate Eagle was treated for a severely grabbed quarter in his left foreleg after the Donn. Pender said that the incident likely occurred at the start. Jockey Martin Pedroza pulled up Ultimate Eagle at the end of the backstretch after the 5-year-old horse faded from contention.

Trainer Al Stall Jr. has confirmed both of his lightly raced 3-year-olds, Departing and Sunbean, for the $400,000 Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 23 at Fair Grounds.

“We need to see whether they fit,” Stall said this week from the New Orleans track. “Obviously, this will be a big test for both of them.”

Departing, bred and owned in partnership by Claiborne Farm, is an unbeaten son of War Front. He won a maiden sprint in December and an allowance route Feb. 1, both with ease and both over the Fair Grounds main track.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Goldencents worked six furlongs in 1:13.40 at Santa Anita on Wednesday, and trainer Doug O’Neill was not the only interested party in how the highly promising colt handled the exercise.

Jockey Kevin Krigger watched exercise rider Jonny Garcia work Goldencents and then headed back to O’Neill’s barn to check on his leading 3-year-old. Krigger then took a hands-on approach.

“You know it’s a big deal when your jockey hot walks him for 10 minutes,” O’Neill said.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – If Friday’s card at Aqueduct looks familiar, well, it should. Seven of the 10 races have been brought back from last week when a winter storm forced the track to cancel live racing Feb. 8 and 9.

Three of the races have been brought back from the Feb. 8 card, including the $69,000 second-level allowance/optional claiming feature going a mile over the inner track.

The race was re-drawn and attracted five of the six horses originally entered, including probable favorite Centrique, a winner of five of her last six starts.

OPELOUSAS, La. – A total of 23 events worth $1.7 million will make up the 2013 Evangeline Downs stakes schedule. The 84-day meeting begins April 17 and will run through Sept. 7. This will be the first racing season for Evangeline under the ownership of Boyd Gaming, which purchased the track and casino late last year. Boyd also owns Delta Downs, which is located approximately 100 miles to the west in Vinton, La.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Spring Bloom makes her first start at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita on Friday, a stamina test that does concern trainer John Shirreffs.

Spring Bloom has two wins and a second in her last three starts since mid-November. A 4-year-old by After Market, Spring Bloom won her first start at 1 1/16 miles on turf against maidens at Betfair Hollywood Park in November and her first start at 1 1/8 miles on turf in an optional claimer for California-breds here Jan. 18.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Kelly Breen didn’t want to run Pants On Fire in a stakes to begin his 2013 campaign. But with no other options at the time, Pants On Fire ended up in the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope, where he finished a game third after stumbling at the break.

Breen finally found the allowance race he was looking for on Friday at Gulfstream Park, a conditioned event also open to $100,000 claimers going a mile. The $65,000 race lured a graded-stakes-quality field that also includes Alma d’Oro, Duke of Mischief, Eldaafer, and Winslow Homer.

There was no hemming and hawing from trainer Steve Margolis a couple days before the 4-year-old filly Good Deed was to make her first start after a long layoff in the Mardi Gras Stakes on Tuesday at Fair Grounds. For lack of an allowance-race comeback option, Margolis had worked Good Deed with an eye toward this stakes return. The filly had trained strongly. She was ready to win, Margolis thought. And he was right.

Demonic, winner of a seven-furlong maiden race in his debut Jan. 13, is unlikely to start in Sunday’s $150,000 San Vicente Stakes for 3-year-olds over seven furlongs, trainer John Sadler said Tuesday.

Sadler is leaning toward running Demonic in the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on March 9. The Grade 2 San Felipe is a key prep for the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby over 1 1/8 miles on April 6.

“I’m leaning toward the two turns,” Sadler said.

Owned by Lee and Susan Searing, Demonic worked six furlongs in 1:13 at Santa Anita on Monday.