OLDSMAR, Fla. - Zagora moved up outside rivals to challenge out of the final turn, then shook off Federation last to post a 1 3/4-length victory in the Grade 3, $150,000 Hillsborough Stakes on Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs. The victory was the second straight in a stakes for jockey Javier Castellano, who won the $100,000 Suncoast the race before with Wait Til Dawn.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Mucho Macho Man put both his abundant talent and versatility on full display Saturday when turning back to a mile to easily defeat a small but select field that included defending champ Tackleberry and Jackson Bend in the $300,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap.

The two previous times in stakes that Bold Affair broke from the rail in stakes, she failed to give her best effort.

“Ramon Dominguez rode her in the Miss Preakness,” recalled Mike Zanella, the co-owner and co-breeder of Bold Affair with Chip Reed. “He said she simply would not go through on the inside and she would up third. The same thing happened in the Dearly Precious. She doesn’t like it down there on the inside.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – As the unbeaten and heavily favored Agave Kiss walked into the starting gate for Saturday’s Grade 3 Cicada Stakes at Aqueduct, Viane Lizza, owner of the New York-bred 3-year-old filly, said she was a nervous wreck.

She might have been the only one.

If the quality of racing can be judged by the jockeys riding those races, well, Monday should be a good day in Ocala, Fla.

John Velazquez, Julien Leparoux, Kent Desormeaux, Rajiv Maragh, Elvis Trujillo, and Leandro Goncalves are among those named to ride on the annual Day of Champions program at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales. The four-race series of betless exhibitions, all for 3-year-olds over the one-mile Safetrack synthetic surface in use at OBS, begins at 1 p.m. Eastern.

When she keeps her shoes on, Miss Becca can be tough to beat.

Miss Becca won for the second time in three starts in Friday’s seventh race at Santa Anita, closing from eighth in a field of nine to win by a nose in an optional claimer for California-bred fillies and mares on the hillside turf course.

The race was her first start since she was pulled up after losing a shoe against a similar field Feb. 10.

After four consecutive starts at Charles Town in which she was the odds-on favorite, Silver Heart’s odds soared to 45-1 when she was ambitiously spotted in the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Handicap at her home track, Laurel Park. A West Virginia-bred 7-year-old mare, Silver Heart is back at a more comfortable level and setting for Charles Town’s featured $31,000 allowance Tuesday night.

Trainer Tony Dutrow might be among the few people in the mid-Atlantic region sorry to see winter give way to spring in a couple of weeks. Picking his spots carefully in both New York and Pennsylvania, Dutrow is having an exceptional winter.

At Gulfstream, Currency Swap made a strong appearance working six furlongs from the gate in 1:11.55 with jockey Rajiv Maragh aboard. Currency Swap, idle since winning the Grade 1 Hopeful six months earlier, completed his opening quarter in a leisurely 25 seconds after leaving the gate with a pair of workmates. He then picked up the pace with each successive eighth, posting splits of 47.84 seconds for a half and 59.47 for five furlongs while easily pulling away from his company under only mild encouragement from Maragh.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Animal Kingdom, the reigning Kentucky Derby champion, and Union Rags, currently the favorite to win this year’s Derby, both turned in easy maintenance works at Palm Meadows on Saturday morning.

Union Rags hit the track at his customary time before 7 a.m. and breezed an easy half-mile in 50.76 seconds under regular exercise rider Peter Brett. Union Rags broke off approximately four lengths behind a stablemate, according to Palm Meadows clocker Bryan Walls, and finished a length in front while in hand to the wire. He galloped out five furlongs in 1:04.40.