NEW ORLEANS – Like gunslingers inexorably moving toward one another for an old-fashioned shootout, Bob Baffert and Todd Pletcher have been dominating the 3-year-old preps this year. As a result, each trainer has four runners on this week’s top 20 list of Derby Watch, Baffert doubling his total from a week ago because of subsequent victories by Castaway and Secret Circle in divisions of the Southwest Stakes.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Absinthe Minded has been on a stakes roll at Oaklawn Park, and next month she will be taking on a Horse of the Year. Absinthe Minded will defend her home court against Havre de Grace as both runners are now being pointed to the Grade 3, $150,000 Azeri.

The 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares is March 17 at Oaklawn. It is one of four stakes for the division this meet and a key stepping-stone to the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap on March 3 is likely to have a double-digit field.

As of Wednesday, there were 10 probable starters for the Grade 1 race over 1 1/4 miles, a group led by defending champion Game On Dude. Trained by Bob Baffert, Game On Dude was second in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in November and won his 2012 debut in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes on Feb. 5.

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – El Aguila Real earned an automatic berth for the $750,000 Champion of Champions with his victory in the $226,050 Los Alamitos Winter Championship last Sunday at Los Alamitos.

The problem for El Aguila Real is that the Champion of Champions is still 10 months away, on Dec. 15.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Los Bomberos has won 2 of 3 starts since being claimed for just $12,500 at Hollywood Park last November.

Finding the right spots for the 4-year-old gelding can sometimes be tricky. Los Bomberos was entered in an optional claimer over six furlongs on dirt at Santa Anita on Monday, but was scratched by trainer Mark Glatt. Instead, Glatt opted to enter Los Bomberos in a similar race over about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course, Friday’s seventh race.

A winner of 4 of 11 starts and $60,200, Los Bomberos, 4, will make his turf debut on Friday.

Applauding, who will be scratched from the Grade 3, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Saturday because she has not been training satisfactorily, is being sent to the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., for a thorough evaluation, trainer Al Stall Jr. said Wednesday morning.

“Her joints are great, her mind is fine, but she’s just not right, so we’re going to have an internist look at her,” Stall said.

Plans are undecided for El Camino Real Derby winner Daddy Nose Best, but runner-up Lucky Chappy will run next in the $2 million UAE Derby on the Dubai World Cup card in Dubai.

One of the primary reasons trainer Graham Motion sent Lucky Chappy to Golden Gate Fields to run last Saturday in the Grade 3 El Camino Real was to get him a race over a Tapeta synthetic surface. That is the same surface used at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.

Bob Zollars owns Daddy Nose Best with his wife, Cathy, and he said the colt would probably run next on dirt, but no decision has been made.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. – The remains of a winter storm a couple weeks ago have given way to milder temperatures as Fonner Park gears up for the opening of its 59th season Friday.

Steve Margolis contemplated a return in the Mardi Gras Stakes earlier this week for Bouquet Booth, but then he got to thinking a little deeper.

“I decided I should just try for an easier spot,” the 48-year-old trainer said.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There’s no shortage of speed in Friday’s featured eighth race at Aqueduct, a second-level allowance/optional claimer containing several sprinters who have won at least one of their recent starts in wire-to-wire fashion.

The field of nine includes the Darley Stable entry of Mysticism and Opening Move, who both have high-octane early speed, and the Repole stable entry of Driven by Solar and Overcommunication, a pair of horses for the course returning from layoffs who are both capable of mixing it up early, and have combined for seven wins on the inner track.