OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Having recently retired Stay Thirsty, Mission Impazible, and Rule, trainer Todd Pletcher has a void in his older male division.

Perhaps San Pablo can help fill it.

A winner of 8 of 14 career starts, including the Grade 3 Iselin Stakes at Monmouth in August, San Pablo appears a hard-to-beat favorite in Saturday’s $75,000 Queens County Stakes at Aqueduct. A field of six was entered for the Queens County, run at 1 1/8 miles over the main track, including Gallant Fields who finished third in an allowance race here Thursday for trainer Richard Dutrow Jr.

PHOENIX – Derive thinks he owns Turf Paradise. You can’t blame the 6-year-old gelding either, as he’s a perfect 7 for 7 over the Phoenix track, six of those wins coming during the 2011-12 meet, including three stakes. His dominance made him an easy choice for horse of the meet.

Well, that ownership figures to get tested Saturday as some of the other best sprinters on the grounds take their shot at the reigning kingpin in the $35,000 Caballos del Sol. The six-furlong event drew a crack field of eight.

A pair of New York-based 3-year-olds who were graded stakes-placed this past spring, a horse whose six-race winning streak included a $450,000 stakes, and two others coming off daylight victories with near-identical Beyer Speed Figures in the low 90s are part of an intriguing lineup for Saturday’s $125,000 City of Laurel Stakes at Laurel Park.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Action Andy won three of his four starts over the Tampa Bay Downs surface last meeting and has since emerged as one of the top sprinters on the East Coast. On Saturday, he will make his first start since upsetting the $350,000 De Francis Memorial Dash in the $60,000 Pelican Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

Action Andy earned a career-best 102 Beyer Speed Figure in the De Francis, rallying late to run down Villano in the final strides for a nose win. The question handicappers must ask themselves is, will Action Andy “bounce” in the six-furlong Pelican?

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher’s powerhouse stable got even more powerful last month with the addition of Dust and Diamonds, who joined the barn just days after her second-place finish behind division leader Groupie Doll in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

Pletcher will waste little time getting Dust and Diamonds back in action, sending her out as the heavy favorite in Saturday’s $100,000 Sugar Swirl, the first graded stakes of the 2012-2013 Gulfstream Park meeting.

Southern Honor was the 4-5 favorite when he finished second, two lengths ahead of 17-1 outsider Res Judicata, in a first-level allowance Oct. 21 at Parx Racing. But when the pair of 2-year-olds are rematched in Saturday’s $75,000 Pennsylvania Nursery, Res Judicata’s odds figure to be much lower than those of Southern Honor.

Late during training hours on a recent, raw Saturday morning, when most of their contemporaries had already made the rounds – or never made them at all – jockeys and brothers Irad and Jose Ortiz came onto Aqueduct’s main track to work one more set of horses for trainer Wesley Ward.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Reneesgotzip, who won the third stakes of her career in the Skillful Joy Stakes last Saturday, will be pointed for the $300,000 La Brea Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.

The Grade 1 La Brea, run over seven furlongs for 3-year-old fillies, could have a very strong field. Other candidates include My Miss Aurelia, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2011, and Gypsy Robin, the winner of the Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland in October.
Wednesday at Santa Anita, My Miss Aurelia worked five furlongs in 1:03, her second workout since the BC Ladies’ Classic.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Pure Fun will have had a busy week by the time she reaches the starting gate for Saturday’s $500,000 Hollywood Starlet Stakes.

The 2-year-old filly was scheduled to be flown from Kentucky to California on Thursday in advance of the Grade 1 Starlet, the last race at that level in the nation for 2-year-old fillies this year. Her last-minute arrival gives the race a starter from outside of California.

It will be the first time since 2006 that a Louisiana Champions Day will be run without Star Guitar, but the show will go on indeed Saturday in New Orleans when the annual series for statebreds is renewed at Fair Grounds.