HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Owner Bruce Lunsford confirmed early this week that Art Collector, a 4 1/2-length winner of the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup on Saturday at Gulfstream Park, definitely will remain in training this year, assuming the 6-year-old horse remains healthy.

Art Collector, based at Payson Park with trainer Bill Mott, will go to stud at Claiborne Farm when his racing days are over, but the huge Pegasus effort led Lunsford to his decision to delay stud duty by a year.

“It’s pretty clear to us that he’s still got a lot of run in him,” Lunsford said.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Robert Falcone Jr. said he’s “cautiously optimistic” that he can proceed down the Kentucky Derby trail with Mr Bob after the colt runs Saturday in the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

“I’ve never been in this position,” said Falcone, who began training in 2014 at age 21. “So, yeah, I’m excited.”

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Private Creed, who was a closing third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint in November, could get a shot at a Kentucky Derby points race. Trainer Steve Asmussen said Sunday that he plans to move the horse to dirt following his runner-up finish in the $100,000 Bob Bork Texas Turf Mile on Saturday at Sam Houston Race Park.

Private Creed raced with the pace over soft ground at Sam Houston and was just edged by Andthewinneris. Private Creed earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 85.

Time may have run out for Cave Rock to make his targeted comeback race, initially planned to be the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes on Feb. 25 at Oaklawn Park.

“It’s getting tight,” trainer Bob Baffert acknowledged last weekend. “I leave the door open; it’s not closed completely.”

Plans for Pauline’s Pearl, who won the Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic for the second year in a row Saturday at Sam Houston Race Park, are to be determined, trainer Steve Asmussen said Sunday.  

The race for fillies and mares was the richest offering during the Houston Racing Festival program of five stakes worth a total of $800,000.  

Scarlet Fusion has some upcoming stakes options at Gulfstream Park after his career performance Saturday in the Grade 3, $200,000 John B. Connally Turf Cup at Sam Houston Race Park. 

Scarlet Fusion won over 1 1/2 miles in the Connally, which was part of the Houston Racing Festival. He rallied for a three-quarter-length victory and earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 96. 

Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore will run nine stakes races on May 20, the day of the Preakness Stakes, the track announced Tuesday, and hold another six stakes, including the Black-Eyed Susan, on the day prior.

The 15 stakes will have total purses of $3.5 million, including $1.5 million for the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes, the middle leg of the Triple Crown. On the same day of the Preakness, Pimlico will hold eight other stakes, four of them Grade 3 races – the $200,000 Dinner Party, the $200,000 Chick Lang, the $100,000 Gallorette, and the $100,000 Maryland Sprint Stakes.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Hours before leaving the winner’s circle triumphantly here Saturday following Art Collector’s impressive victory in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott was scratching his head in consternation following the inexplicably dull performance turned in by his odds-on favorite Obligatory in the Grade 2 Inside Information.

While things didn’t go great for trainer Brad Cox this past weekend in Florida, where Cyberknife wrapped up his racing career with a sixth-place finish as the 2-1 favorite in the Pegasus World Cup, the Fair Grounds wing of the stable did just fine. Cox ran four horses last racing week in New Orleans, and all of them won.

The undefeated Hoosier Philly didn’t exactly ease back into published workouts this past weekend at Fair Grounds, drilling a half-mile Jan. 28 in 47.80 seconds, the fastest among 102 four-furlong works that morning.