OZONE PARK, N.Y. - After watching the races earlier on Saturday’s card at Aqueduct, trainer James Lawrence and owner George Autry decided to change tactics with their 3-year-old filly Lady Banks for the $75,000 Ruthless Stakes.

Rather than have jockey Eddie Castro take back and make one run, Lawrence instructed Castro to keep Lady Banks close to the pace.

Multiple stakes winner Bold Affair was more than a little reluctant to go into the starting gate for Saturday’s $105,000 What a Summer Stakes at Laurel Park. Thereafter, however, it was smooth sailing.

Bold Affair, racing three wide under jockey Abel Castellano Jr., overtook pacesetter Defy Gravity and second choice Dance to Bristol with about three furlongs remaining and rolled to an easy 4 1/2-length victory in the six-furlong race for fillies and mares.

Castellano said that acting up at the gate is something he has encoutered before with Bold Affair.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens won for the first time in more than seven years in Saturday’s first race at Santa Anita, less than a week after he came out of retirement.

Stevens, 49, rode Branding ($13.20) to a win in a seven-furlong maiden special weight race for 3-year-old fillies. Branding was fifth entering the turn, and closed well to win by 2 1/2 lengths.

The victory was the first for Stevens since November 2005, the month he announced his retirement. He rode in an old-timers race in 2008, and resumed riding on a regular basis on Jan. 6.

STICKNEY, Ill. – Barring another case of equine herpesvirus late Saturday, Hawthorne Race Course will emerge from a state-mandated disease quarantine at 6 a.m. Sunday.

The quarantine has been in place since late October, and with its expiration, Hawthorne is one major formal step closer to emerging from a herpesvirus outbreak that led to the death of seven horses and impacted the track’s fall-winter meet.

But for many horsemen stuck at Hawthorne for more than two months, the end of the quarantine doesn’t mean that much.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Mucho Macho Man completed preparations for his 2013 bow in next Saturday’s Sunshine Millions Classic by working five furlongs in 59.61 under regular exercise rider Nick Petro Jr. on Saturday. Breaking off at the half-mile pole while equipped in blinkers, Mucho Macho Man traveled his first quarter in 23.20 and half in 47.01 before galloping out six furlongs into the turn in 1:14.47.

“It was perfect, just what I wanted. He’s ready to go,” said trainer Katherine Ritvo.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Little Mike, an Eclipse Award finalist in two categories, breezed a very easy half-mile in 51.06 seconds immediately after the second renovation break here at Gulfstream Park on Saturday. It was his first work since closing out his spectacular 2012 campaign with an impressive victory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Oaklawn Park canceled Saturday and Sunday’s races after heavy rains made for unsafe track conditions. Racing is expected to resume as scheduled on Thursday.

Something about a road trip to West Virginia seems to bring out the best in 6-year-old geldings Esporon and Peppi Knows.

Within an eight-day span in December, the New York-based Esporon won back-to-back starts at Charles Town, the first at 6 1/2 furlongs and the second going 1 1/16 miles.

Peppi Knows, who is stabled at Penn National with trainer Tim Kreiser, is 2 for 3 lifetime at Charles Town, including a 3 1/4-length score the last time he visited the track in October.

Fox Hill Farm has produced more than its share of standout horses in the recent past. Since 2005, the Rick Porter-owned stable has campaigned 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace, Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Round Pond, and Kentucky Derby runners-up Hard Spun and Eight Belles.

The colt Coach flashed the potential to join that group as a stakes-caliber performer. A half-brother to Grade 3 winner Ocean Terrace, Coach looked good winning his maiden going two turns at Oaklawn Park in his second start as a 3-year-old last February.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Beholder may be a champion by the time she makes her 3-year-old debut in the $150,000 Santa Ynez Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 21.

The winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies here on Nov. 2, Beholder is one of three finalists for the title of champion 2-year-old filly of 2012, which will be announced on Saturday, Jan. 19, at Gulfstream Park in Florida.

Regardless of whether she is named champion, Beholder has progressed since the BC Juvenile Fillies in the mind of trainer Richard Mandella.