HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Steve Asmussen has been eager to find a race for Sortilege, who on Thursday will start as a top contender in a first-level allowance route for fillies and mares at Oaklawn Park. It has been about six weeks since her last start, which came at Fair Grounds on Jan. 25, and the gap is one that Asmussen would rather not have with Sortilege.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Sanagas, the winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Turf Cup last November but only sixth in the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes on Feb. 11, will not start again at Santa Anita this spring, trainer Peter Miller said.

The B.C. 3 Thoroughbreds partnership that owns Sanagas intend to send the 6-year-old gelding to Australia for an expected start in the Melbourne Cup this fall. Sanagas will skip the $150,000 San Luis Rey Stakes on March 18 and the $150,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap on April 22.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The problem with Blingo last fall was never an issue of ability.

He won his career debut in a one-mile turf race at Hollywood Park on Thanksgiving weekend and finished a fast-closing sixth in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity in December, his only other start.

But he was something of a goofball, trainer John Shirreffs says, tough to train.

“He’s a gelding for a reason,” Shirreffs said last weekend.

The talented Blingo is on the Triple Crown trail for a reason, too.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The third-place finish by Rousing Sermon in the Grade 2 Robert Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 4 led to a pep talk between owner Larry Williams and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.

The colt had been a fast-closing second in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park in December, and there were high expectations for his first start of 2012.

ALBANY, Calif. – After initially allowing a claim despite an error on the claim slip, the Golden Gate Fields stewards have reversed their decision and awarded the horse to another ownership group that had submitted a claim.

On Feb. 17, leading trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and his longtime client George Todaro submitted a $12,500 claim for Powers Lilsis. Even though the date of the race was mistakenly listed as Jan. 17 on the claim slip, the stewards allowed the claim to stand. Typically, a mistake on a claim slip voids a claim.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. That’s a theory trainer Chad Brown is trying to impart to his talented but still somewhat misguided Self Control, who’ll be among the favorites in Thursday’s wide-open $62,750 allowance feature at Gulfstream Park.

Shotgun Gulch, a Grade 1 winner who was retired last month because of injury, has been sold privately to Rick Porter of Fox Hill Farm in a deal that closed Tuesday morning, said C.R. Trout, who bred, owned, and trained the mare. Trout said Shotgun Gulch was to travel Tuesday from Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., to Taylor Made Farm in Lexington, Ky. Porter confirmed the deal and said Shotgun Gulch would be bred to Bernardini.

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OBS Sale: Top-shelf jockeys lined up for OBS stakes

ENTRIES:

Monday, March 12, 2012

Race 1 (1:00 p.m.)

OBS Sprint Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said that in light of Hansen’s easy victory in Saturday’s Gotham, he is now more inclined to bring his top Derby contender, Alpha, back in the Grade 1 Florida Derby here at Gulfstream Park on March 31 rather than await the Wood the following weekend in New York. Alpha won both the Count Fleet and Grade 3 Withers earlier this winter at Aqueduct. McLaughlin brought him back to Palm Meadows to continue training following the Withers.

It’s Tricky, who won Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Top Flight Handicap by 2 3/4 lengths, will remain in New York as her connections ponder what may be next for the 4-year-old filly.

It’s Tricky came out of her Top Flight win a little tired but otherwise in good shape, according to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. It’s Tricky, making her first start since a second-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic last November, ran over a sealed muddy track that was laboring.