LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It didn’t take trainer Bob Baffert long to make his presence felt around Churchill Downs in advance of this year’s Kentucky Derby.

Less than 24 hours after arriving in Louisville, Baffert sent out the likely Derby favorite Bodemeister to work five furlongs in company with one of his three Kentucky Oaks hopefuls, Jemima’s Pearl, on a clear and crisp Tuesday morning under the Twin Spires. The Baffert show continued about 15 minutes later when his undefeated filly Mamma Kimbo also worked for the Oaks.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Rain this week in California will not put a damper on opening day of the spring meet at Betfair Hollywood Park, which opens Thursday for a 50-day season that many horseplayers welcome.

A bias-free main track and launch of 2-year-olds offer refreshing change following a long winter on the speed-friendly Santa Anita dirt. For bettors and horsemen who appreciate an occasional come-from-behind winner, Cushion Track at Hollywood is fine, thank you.

Trainer Peter Eurton did not lose at Santa Anita in April.

From April 5 to April 14, Eurton saddled eight consecutive winners, a personal milestone. The only loss he sustained during that span was a second by She’s Cheeky in the Grade 1 Madison Stakes at Keeneland.

On Thursday, Eurton’s Southern California winning streak will be tested when Chickie Charms starts in the $70,000 Harry Henson Stakes for 3-year-olds over six furlongs on turf.

Chickie Charms gave Eurton his eighth win of the streak, in a maiden race.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – From the time Creative Cause crossed the wire a close third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last fall at Churchill Downs, trainer Mike Harrington had his sights set on returning for the Kentucky Derby, and mapped out a plan to get there. He wanted three races this winter at Santa Anita, well spaced, concluding with the Santa Anita Derby, designed, as he put it, as “a progression.”

The Betfair Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting will be five races old when jockey Patrick Valenzuela walks into the paddock to ride the maiden claimer Family and Friends in a sprint Thursday.

For Valenzuela, 49, the mount will be the first in the latest comeback of his career, four months after he announced his retirement from riding because of knee trouble and gall bladder surgery.

An excellent Thursday undercard at Keeneland includes back-to-back filly-mare allowance routes (races 6, 7), the latter being a third-level Polytrack race that drew stakes-caliber runners It’s Tea Time and Bizzy Caroline.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Canonize has come to Lone Star Park for its real, live dirt. He arrived Monday morning from Southern California for an intended start in the Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile, which will serve as the first major stakes race of the meet when it is run Saturday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Kentucky Derby isn’t the only big upcoming race at Churchill Downs likely to have an also-eligibles list. The Kentucky Oaks also will have an AE list comprised of as many as four horses in case the race is oversubscribed with the limit of 14 fillies, and at this point, it looks as if that might well happen.

When Eddie Meza assumed the job of racetrack chaplain at Southern California tracks four years ago, it seemed like the only job in the stable area he had not tried.

Since he was a teenager, Meza, 51, has been a jockey, an exercise rider, a stable foreman and assistant trainer. Not surprisingly, he continues to take a multi-tasking approach to work life. In addition to working as a chaplain, Meza helps train a six-horse stable run by his wife, Francis.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Creative Cause, narrowly beaten in the Santa Anita Derby in his last start, worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 at Betfair Hollywood Park on Tuesday morning, his final local drill before leaving Saturday for the Kentucky Derby on May 5 at Churchill Downs.

Trainer Mike Harrington said he plans to work Creative Cause once at Churchill Downs, ideally on Tuesday, as long as the weather cooperates.

“It depends on the weather,” Harrington said at his Hollywood Park barn. “I would prefer to breeze him, but he doesn't have to.”