HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Musical Romance had a year’s worth of excuses in just one race when finishing fourth making her 2012 debut in the Florida Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Sprint. The winner of last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, Musical Romance will attempt to bounce back and put her Eclipse Award- winning form on display when she returns against 10 rivals on Saturday in a very deep edition of Gulfstream Park’s $150,000 Inside Information.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Mike Lauer has seen the Kentucky Derby in person perhaps 40 times, but never as the trainer of a horse in the race. As a lifelong horseman who unofficially began his racetrack career as an 11-year-old at the old Toledo Raceway in his home state of Ohio, Lauer, now 60, would love to have a Derby horse one day.

Arena Elvira will attempt to start off 2012 just the way she ended 2011 and keep her winning streak intact Saturday in the $50,000 Wayward Lass Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla.

Eight older fillies and mares, including a Marty Wolfson entry, are entered in the Wayward Lass, a 1 1/16-mile dirt race that anchors an 11-race Saturday card. First post is 12:27 p.m. Eastern, with the Wayward Lass going at 4:10.

PHOENIX – Saturday’s two mile grass stakes for 3-year-olds at Turf Paradise present different scenarios for handicappers. The $35,000 Tempe Handicap, for males, drew a competitive field of 12. The $35,000 Scottsdale Handicap, for fillies, drew a field of eight and has a heavy favorite in Lasso From El Paso.

Favored Swiss Exploit ($6.40) seized command on the far turn and edged clear under a confident Javier Matias to win the $25,000 Portland Meadows Route Claiming Series Starter Stakes by 3 3/4 lengths Wednesday.

Earning $10,000 for owner-trainer David P. Runyon, Swiss Exploit proved clearly best in the culmination of the track's popular three-race series which began Feb. 1 with 27 entrants.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The rash of breakdowns over Aqueduct's inner track this winter have apparently caught the attention of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

On Wednesday, Cuomo's office sent a letter to the New York Racing Association's president, Charles Hayward "advising NYRA to hire a qualified independent investigator or team of investigators to review the circumstances involving these breakdowns, analyze the causes and recommend any necessary action to equine breakdowns at NYRA facilities."

Went the Day Well, one of three Kentucky Derby candidates trainer Graham Motion has for Team Valor International along with Howe Great and Lucky Chappy, could make his next start in the Grade 3 Vinery Racing Spiral at Turfway Park.

Went the Day Well, who launched his career on grass in England, was an impressive maiden winner over the main track going one mile and one sixteenth here earlier this month in just his second U.S. appearance.

Saturday’s Grade 2 Inside Information has come up one of the most attractive and competitive stakes of the meet. A field of 11 fillies and mares will contest the seven furlong-sprint, including reigning Eclipse Award winner Musical Romance, likely favorite R Holiday Mood, Her Smile, and Groupie Doll.

The remainder of the lineup consists of Belle of the Hall, Catch a Thief, Funny Sunny, Hot Summer, Magical Feeling, Much Rejoicing, and Persuading.

The warm winter could lead to an earlier-than-usual start to the turf season on this circuit. The first turf race scheduled in the condition book is for March 29.

One trainer looking forward to an early turf season is David Donk, who is preparing his multiple stakes-winning New York-bred Hessonite for her 4-year-old season.

Hessonite, last seen winning the Ticonderoga at Belmont last Oct. 22, breezed six furlongs in 1:15.80 over the Belmont training track Tuesday. It was her sixth work since returning to Donk’s barn in late January.

Trainers want to win every race, but a victory by Inherit the Gold in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Excelsior Stakes would carry extra special meaning to trainer Jim Hooper.

On Tuesday, Hooper learned that his father, Dr. Jack Hooper, was moved into hospice care in Indiana with congenital heart failure. He is 89 and was told three years ago that he probably only had a few months to live.