Fun to Dream, the winner of the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes at Santa Anita in December, was honored on Monday as the California-bred Horse of the Year in a dinner ceremony hosted by the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association.

Fun to Dream, who races for Jill Baffert and Conne Pageler, is off to a fine start this year, having won her 2023 debut in the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes at seven furlongs for fillies and mares at Santa Anita on Feb. 4. Fun to Dream, a 4-year-old filly by Arrogate, is entered in Saturday’s Grade 1 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.

Ami Please, second and third in two stakes in Dubai this winter, is scheduled to return to the United States later this month with the hope she can gain a berth in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 5.

Trainer Doug O’Neill said Wednesday that Ami Please is scheduled to be sent to his Kentucky division in the final days of March. There is a possibility Ami Please will have a prep race in early April for the Kentucky Oaks.

Stonewall Star, the 11-length winner of the Wide Country Stakes at Laurel Park on Feb. 18, will make her next start in the Grade 2, $400,000 Beaumont Stakes on April 16 at Keeneland, trainer Horacio De Paz said Sunday.

Stonewall Star, a New York-bred daughter of Flatter, has won 4 of 7 starts including the Franklin Square and Key Cents, both restricted to statebreds.

“We figured we’d try her in graded-stakes open company,” said De Paz, who said he plans to breeze the filly back this weekend at Belmont.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Punchbowl will advance to a Kentucky Oaks points race after improving her career mark to 2 for 2 last weekend at Oaklawn Park.

Trainer Brad Cox said Tuesday that Punchbowl is to make her next start in either the Grade 3, $600,000 Fantasy on April 1 at Oaklawn or the Grade 1, $600,000 Ashland on April 7 at Keeneland.

Punchbowl won at the 1 1/16-mile distance of both of those races on March 5, when she shuttled to a 4 1/4-length victory in a first-level allowance. For the effort, Punchbowl earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 89.

Law Professor, third in the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap on Feb. 18 at Oaklawn Park, is back in New York and on Sunday worked a half-mile in 49.80 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.

Trainer Rob Atras said the options for Law Professor’s next start include the Grade 3, $500,000 Essex at Oaklawn Park on March 18, the Grade 2, $500,000 New Orleans Classic at Fair Grounds on March 25, and the $125,000 Excelsior at Aqueduct on April 1.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Arctic Arrogance, forced to miss last Saturday’s Grade 3 Gotham Stakes after missing training time due to illness, returned to the work tab Wednesday, breezing five furlongs in 1:02 over Belmont Park’s training track.

It was his first breeze since he finished second in the Withers Stakes on Feb. 11, his third consecutive runner-up finish in a stakes race that offered qualifying points toward the Kentucky Derby.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Classic Causeway, who swept the Sam F. Davis and Tampa Derby last year, could make his 4-year-old debut Saturday in the $100,000 Challenger going 1 1/16 miles on the main track.

“We entered, but we might keep him at Fair Grounds and run instead next weekend in the Essex at Oaklawn,” said Kenny McPeek, who won the Grade 1 Belmont Derby on turf with Classic Causeway not long after assuming his training following an 11th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby for Brian Lynch.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Eoin Harty is upbeat by nature, which is why it’s not all that surprising to hear him give Groveland a good chance in the Tampa Bay Derby.

“I’m always optimistic,” said Harty, who was here from his main Southern California base to saddle Groveland to a runner-up finish in the Sam F. Davis Stakes as a 21-1 shot. “Especially after his last race. He’s never run a bad race, really. It’s up to him to tell us whether or not he’s capable of running the kind of numbers it’ll take to become a real [Kentucky] Derby prospect or not. Hopefully, he’ll run another big race.”

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Mandy Pope counts herself as a Derby dreamer, but she refuses to take it to the extreme.

“It’s very exciting to get caught up in thinking ahead to the Kentucky Derby,” Pope said this week by phone from her Ocala base, “but if I don’t have any horses in the Derby, I’m fine with that. I want to do what’s best for developing the horse in the long run.”

Frank Hopf, the former assistant general manager at Sam Houston Race Park in Houston, has been hired as the senior director of racing for Colonial Downs in Virginia, the new owner of the track, Churchill Downs Inc., announced Tuesday.