ARCADIA, Calif. – Holy Candy is still a maiden – and still very much on the Triple Crown trail from the perspective of trainer John Sadler.

In Saturday’s second race at Santa Anita, Holy Candy will be heavily favored to win a maiden race over 1 1/16 miles, which could lead to a major stakes appearance in late March or early April. Judging from the competition he has faced, Holy Candy will be difficult to oppose on Saturday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Ultimate Eagle was largely ignored by bettors as he amassed three graded stakes wins from mid-October to early February, going off at 34-1, 14-1, and 7-1 in those races.

Those days are long gone.

When Ultimate Eagle starts as the 120-pound highweight in Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap, Ultimate Eagle will be the favorite to win the richest and most prestigious race of his career. Getting to these kind of races, a Grade 1 over 1 1/4 miles, is what owner B.J. Wright and trainer Mike Pender envisioned all along for the 4-year-old colt.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Kathleen O’Connell has a fresh horse in Watch Me Go, winner of last year’s Tampa Bay Derby, who is coming off a solid comeback effort but doesn’t have many options at the moment.

That’s why O’Connell will send out Watch Me Go to make his second start of the year Saturday in the $60,000 Challenger Stakes at a mile and a sixteenth.

Watch Me Go, finished a good second to the red-hot Action Andy in the Feb. 11 Super Stakes, his first start since August of last year. He came back to work six furlongs in 1:16.40.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – As there was no shortage of horsemen willing to enter against Hansen in Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct, there likely will be no shortage of horseplayers seeking to play against last year’s 2-year-old male champion in the 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds over the inner track.

But just as Hansen has some questions to answer coming off his first career defeat in the Grade 3 Holy Bull, his 12 challengers have as many – if not more – questions to answer.

Purses at the current Turfway Park winter-spring meet are being cut 25 percent, effective with the 11-race Saturday card, track officials said Thursday.

The latest cut means the minimum purse will drop from $6,000 to $4,500. Track president Bob Elliston said a purse overpayment compared to 2011 dates is chiefly responsible for the purse cut, along with a 6 percent decline in all-sources handle.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Reneesgotzip will be the filly to catch in Saturday’s $250,000 Las Virgenes Stakes over a mile at Santa Anita. It is the stretch run of that race that will be a testing ground for the crack sprinter.

“It’s definitely a key race for her to decide whether she goes to the Santa Anita Oaks or if she’s a one-turn filly,” trainer Peter Miller said.

Rosie Napravnik, who barring misfortune is on her way to a second straight riding title at Fair Grounds, will move her tack to New York as soon as the meet in New Orleans ends April 1. Napravnik, who plans to remain in New York throughout the summer, said she’ll be represented by agent Matt Muzikar.

Graham Motion brought a horse to Turfway Park nearly a year ago to see whether he fit in the Kentucky Derby scheme. The answers he got were affirmative, even in May, when Animal Kingdom used a victory in the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes as a springboard to become the latest Derby winner.

Motion seems to have lesser ambitions this March with a colt named State of Play, whose seventh-place finish in the Sam F. Davis Stakes four weeks ago would hardly recommend him as a Derby prospect.

The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority on Monday signed a deal that will give the state’s horsemen the right to operate Monmouth Park under a lease with the state.

The approval, which had been authorized by the authority’s board earlier this week, is one of the final steps in closing the deal. The New Jersey Racing Commission must also authorize the lease, an approval that is expected within the next month.

Millionreasonswhy, who narrowly missed upsetting 2-year-old champion juvenile filly My Miss Aurelia last summer, makes her eagerly awaited 3-year-old debut in Saturday’s $100,000 Wide Country Stakes at Laurel Park.