ARCADIA, Calif. – It took nearly a year to get Battle Force back to the races, but it appears the wait was worth it, because he comes into Santa Anita fresh, potentially primed for a breakout meeting, with the first chance to shine coming Wednesday in the Grade 2, $150,000 Sir Beaufort, part of a stakes tripleheader on the opening-day card.

The Sir Beaufort, for 3-year-olds at one mile on turf, was won last year by Mr. Commons. His trainer, John Shirreffs, and jockey, Mike Smith, team anew with Battle Force.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Ryan Curatolo is riding at Tampa Bay Downs for the first time this season, and the 20-year-old native of France is hoping a strong meeting will get him past the dreaded “sophomore slump” that has plagued him much of this season.

Curatolo came to the United States to visit his father in Florida during the winter of 2010 and wound up staying in the country. He started working for fellow Frenchman Patrick Biancone later that year and began riding for Biancone early in 2011 at Gulfstream Park.

The Triple Crown trail doesn’t really start winding its way toward the Kentucky Derby until the calendar flips over to the New Year. Whichever horse wins the featured seventh race Wednesday at Fair Grounds will earn a map, a compass, and a chance to venture at least a little ways down that trail in a race like the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 19 at Fair Grounds.

ARCADIA, Calif. – My Miss Aurelia was the champion 2-year-old filly of 2011, but her bid to repeat at age 3 in 2012 was seemingly compromised by a late start, since she did not return until August. But in a little more than four months, she has more than made up for lost time. She is on the short list of contenders for her division’s Eclipse Award, and responsible voters will get another chance to evaluate her campaign before the polls close when she runs in the Grade 1, $300,000 La Brea Stakes on Wednesday at Santa Anita.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Holiday festivities continue one day after Christmas, on Dec. 26, when Santa Anita launches its 2012-13 winter meet amid a celebratory opening-day atmosphere and an appealing nine-race card with three graded stakes.

After nine dark racing days, Southern California horseplayers and horsemen should be champing at the bit for the opener of the 71-day, four-month winter meet.

STICKNEY, Ill. – An Illinois-bred 2-year-old colt makes his career debut in a statebred-restricted maiden race Wednesday at Hawthorne. Already, the horse has attained a small measure of celebrity.

His name is Magna Fortuna. The Louisville Courier-Journal hosts a weblog that details his history and updates Magna Fortuna’s progress at the track. Stories have been written, local television crews dispatched to Hawthorne.

“He’s kind of gone viral, it looks like,” trainer Michele Boyce said.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - When last seen in New York, Ramon Dominguez was celebrating his 36th birthday on Nov. 24 winning five races at Aqueduct, including three graded stakes. The following day, he rode at Hollywood Park.

Dominguez has not ridden since Nov. 25 because of a badly bruised foot suffered earlier in November. Dominguez is scheduled to return Wednesday at Aqueduct, where he is named on six horses, including Saratoga Snacks in the $75,000 Alex Robb Stakes.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The horses who will make up California’s Kentucky Derby crop next spring did not acquit themselves well in recent weeks. Both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita and the CashCall Futurity at Betfair Hollywood Park were won by horses who shipped in from the East Coast to beat the locals.

Golden Gate Fields is offering stakes races in just about all categories for the 101-day winter-spring meet that begins Wednesday.

The glamour division, of course, is 3-year-olds, and Golden Gate’s big race for that age group is the Grade 3, $200,000 El Camino Real Derby on Feb. 16. The $100,000 California Derby Jan. 12 is the main prep.

A pair of Christmas-themed starter handicaps and a second-level optional $25,000 claimer with a purse of $50,000 highlight the only Thoroughbred program in North America on Monday at Parx Racing, where the first of nine races will go off at 12:25 p.m. Eastern.

The best of the co-featured trio of races is the $50,000 Mistletoe Starter Handicap (race 7), a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares who have run for a claiming tag of $16,000 or less the past two seasons.