ARCADIA, Calif. – Regardless of whether defending champion Game On Dude starts in Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap, the race will have a big field.

As of Tuesday, there were as many as 13 probable starters, but no firm decision had been made on whether Game On Dude will run. Co-owner Bernie Schiappa said on Tuesday that trainer Bob Baffert had yet to choose whether to run Game On Dude or wait for the $10 million Dubai World Cup in the Middle East on March 31. A decision was expected before Wednesday’s entry date.

Stakes purses for the 2012 Pimlico spring meeting in Baltimore, Md., will be worth $525,000 more this year, the track’s operator announced Tuesday, because of the impact of purse subsidies generated by casinos in the state.

The 29-day meet, which is scheduled to run from March 30 to May 19, will feature 22 stakes races worth a total of $3.425 million, highlighted by the $1 million Preakness Stakes on closing day. Sixteen of the stakes are scheduled to be run on the Friday before the Preakness and as part of the Preakness card, with total purses of $3 million.

Ever So Lucky has been anything but lucky this winter for trainer Jonathan Sheppard. Ever So Lucky was forced to miss the Grade 2 Hutcheson due to a combination of several days of wet weather that disrupted his training and a little gash on his right foot, and now he’s suffered a second minor setback, a bruise on his left foot, Sheppard revealed Sunday.

Sheppard’s current goal for Ever So Lucky is the seven-furlong, Grade 3 Swale on March 10.

The likelihood of a small field for the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby on March 31, plus the chance to keep jockey Ramon Dominguez on Alpha, has trainer Kiaran McLaughlin pondering the Florida Derby for Alpha, who still has the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 7 as a potential final Kentucky Derby prep, too.

McLaughlin said the victory by Union Rags in the Fountain of Youth Stakes on Sunday might help keep the field size small for the Florida Derby. But McLaughlin also is looking down the line at a possible conflict for the Wood with Dominguez.

Wes Hawley has but one regret about how well his training career is going.

“I just wish Glenda was here to enjoy it all,” said Hawley, who lost his wife in 2006 to cancer.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The veteran jockey Martin Pedroza can be described as durable, strong-willed, and very possessive.

Six times in the last year, Pedroza, 46, has been involved in a spill or unseated in a race in Southern California. He has missed a few mounts or a day to recover, but has escaped serious injury.

The board of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority has given its preliminary approval to an agreement to lease Monmouth Park to the state’s horsemen group, but questions still surround whether the track will be able to fund stakes races this year.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Tom Albertrani was a little hoarse when chatting during training hours Monday, the remnants of a week-long bout with the flu. But one couldn’t be faulted for thinking Albertrani might have strained his voice cheering for the latest star in his barn, the undefeated 3-year-old filly Zo Impressive, who remained unbeaten and untested after two starts following her impressive entry-level allowance win here Saturday.

ALBANY, Calif. – Trainer Billy Morey is looking forward to Thursday’s seventh race at Golden Gate Fields, a one-mile allowance that will see the comeback of Positive Response, Northern California’s top 3-year-old on the Kentucky Derby trail last year.

Positive Response has not raced since setting the pace and finishing eighth as the favorite in the Grade 3 Spiral Stakes last March 26 at Turfway Park in Kentucky.

“Finally,” said Morey about the comeback.

The battle over south Florida racing dates may be back on.

On Tuesday, Hialeah Park, the south Florida racetrack that has not run a Thoroughbred meet since 2001, submitted a dates application to the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering seeking 22 Thoroughbred dates in April and May of 2013. The request is in direct conflict with the dates application submitted by Calder Race Course, leading to expectations that the two tracks will forcefully argue their cases for the dates over the next several weeks.