PHOENIX – Once upon a time in Southern California, Derive looked destined for big things. Alas, this fairy tale hasn’t come out the way Derive’s connections had hoped, but Saturday’s $75,000 Phoenix Gold Cup gives Derive a chance to bring about a happy ending and prove he is the best sprinter on the grounds.

A field of 10 is slated for the six-furlong Gold Cup – the marquee event of the Turf Paradise meet – which goes as race 7 on a card that also features the $35,000 Turf Paradise Handicap and $35,000 Sun City Handicap.

There are plenty of similarities among Hansen and his full older brother, Tapanna – except for the Eclipse Award, of course. The most important traits in common are the identical pedigrees and still-to-be-determined levels of talent, although it’s obvious that Hansen, as the 2-year-old champion of 2011, always will have a greater claim to fame.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Florida Derby day is the biggest day on the Gulfstream Park calendar each winter. And if the track’s president and general manager, Tim Ritvo, has his way, it will get even bigger this year.

Ritvo is hoping to lure the three top fillies and mares in the country – Horse of the Year Havre de Grace and Eclipse Award winners Royal Delta and Awesome Feather – to Gulfstream for the Grade 3 Rampart, which is one of six other stakes to be run on the March 31 Florida Derby program.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – At the top of the stretch of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, it appeared Force Freeze was on his way to victory, only to be run down late and drop a neck decision to ultimate Eclipse Award winner Amazombie. It’s a moment Force Freeze’s trainer, Peter Walder, will never forget.

“That race still haunts me,” said Walder. “I think we ran the best horse that day. They say Force Freeze ran 15 feet further than the winner, but none of that matters. We still finished second.”

This year’s edition of the El Camino Real Derby on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields pits the classy shippers Daddy Nose Best and Lucky Chappy against the local Jerry Hollendorfer-trained pair of Russian Greek and the filly Lady of Fifty.

OPELOUSAS, La. – A total of 23 races worth a combined $1.72 million will make up this season’s stakes schedule at Evangeline Downs. The 84-day stand gets under way April 18 and will once again be highlighted by Louisiana Legends Night on June 30. The Legends program will feature eight stakes restricted to Louisiana-breds and has historcially proven to be the season’s biggest evening.

HALLANDALE BEAch, fLA. - Breeders’ Cup winner Perfect Shirl will  use a race at Gulfstream to prep for her trip to Dubai later next month. Perfect Shirl, upset winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare turf, will make her 2012 debut a week from Saturday in the Grade 3 The Very One as a prelude to a start against males in the 1 1/2-mile Sheema Classic on the World Cup undercard on March 31.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Ramon Dominguez won five races Wednesday at Aqueduct, four of those winners coming in a pick-six sequence that returned $7,970.

Dominguez, the two-time defending Eclipse Award-winning rider, went 5 for 8 on the nine-race card. His five-win day came five days after Junior Alvarado went 5 for 7 here last Friday.

Dominguez had won four races on a single card three previous occasions this winter, and on Dec. 14-15 set a New York Racing Association record by riding seven consecutive winners.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer John Servis and jockey Stewart Elliott, who swept Oaklawn’s series for 3-year-olds in 2004 with eventual Kentucky Derby winner Smarty Jones, will make their first Arkansas appearances in several years Monday.

Servis has sent Adirondack King in from Florida for the Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest Stakes, the first major prep on Oaklawn’s road to the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby. As of Wednesday, there were 21 probables for the Southwest, a one-mile race that could be split into two divisions.

Liaison, winner of the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park in December who lost his rider in midstretch of his 3-year-old debut here in the Robert Lewis Stakes on Feb. 4, worked a half-mile in 47 seconds Wednesday.

Liaison worked in company with Gator Warrior, who was timed in 47.80. For Liaison, the half-mile workout was his first since the loss in the Lewis Stakes and was second-fastest of 24 works at the distance.

“I worked him without blinkers, and he worked really well,” trainer Bob Baffert said.