Oaklawn Park will increase overnight purses $5,000 a day beginning with Thursday’s nine-race program, the Hot Springs, Ark., track announced on Wednesday. There will be a $1,500 increase to all allowance races; a $1,000 boost to all maiden special weight and starter allowance races; and a $200 bump to all claiming races.

The New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association will operate Monmouth Park next year under a lease agreement with the state-owned New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority as long as final negotiations on the deal are complete by the end of February, the horsemen’s legal counsel said on Wednesday.

Aqueduct's Friday late pick four is a sequence that hinges on successfully navigating the first and last legs, as races 7 and 8 feature logical-type contenders. Using the TicketMaker tool found exclusively on DRF.com to build my wager, my strategy will be to press Smokin Candy in Race 7, while spreading around him (especially in the finale) to maximize the chances of cashing should he come through.   

ARCADIA, Calif. – Senor Toby’s current seven-race winning streak coincides with the span in which the 4-year-old has raced as a gelding. The streak began last June and was extended Jan. 29 in a division of the Los Alamitos Winter Championship trials.

Senor Toby will make his next start in the $226,050 Winter Championship final over 400 yards on Feb. 19. The race has a strong field, including the former champions Jess You and I and Noconi, but should be Senor Toby’s eighth straight win, trainer Jaime Gomez said.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Patricia Farro had one talented stakes-caliber sprinter in her barn, Royal Currier, when the Gulfstream meet started. Now she has two after Nathan’s H Q was unexpectedly transferred into her stable by owner Thomas Carey shortly after the start of the new year.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Dale Romans has had no glitches when it has come to preparing Preakness winner Shackleford for his 2012 debut, which comes Saturday in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap.

“Everything looks good – we’re ready,” said Romans. “It looks like it’s going to be a very strong field, but we’re not about to duck anybody now.”

[COMEBACKS: Workouts and race records for Shackleford, Ruler On Ice, Animal Kingdom]

ARCADIA, Calif. -  Saturday at Santa Anita, Mr. Commons solidified his position as best turf miler on the West Coast, if not the nation, with his victory in the Arcadia Stakes. The Arcadia is a prep for the Grade 1, $300,000 Kilroe Mile on the Big ’Cap undercard on March 3, and that is where he is headed next, according to his trainer, John Shirreffs.

“He’s really matured a lot,” Shirreffs said.

Fed Biz takes next step

No Spin, an overnight stakes winner at Hawthorne who finished 10th to Junebugred in the Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park, will be entered back in the Southwest Stakes but is also being considered for the  $150,000 Borderland Derby at Sunland Park on Feb. 25, said trainer Tim Ice.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Cyber Secret is headed to the Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest at Oaklawn Park following a powerful first-level allowance win at the track last Saturday. He was assigned a Beyer Speed Figure of 96, one of the top numbers given to a 3-year-old so far in 2012.

“That was a big race from him,” said Lynn Whiting, who trains Cyber Secret.

On Tuesday it was announced that Cyber Secret was inadvertently left off the original Triple Crown nominations and now is one the 398 3-year-old eligible for the series.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Dozens of horses and riders, every day, make the short walk from the Santa Anita paddock, through the grandstand tunnel, to the track. Most of the time, the parade is quiet and incident-free.

But Jan. 8, as mild-mannered turf sprinter Silver Summation and jockey Garrett Gomez made their way toward the tunnel for the eighth-race feature, the Grade 3 Daytona Stakes, it all went screwy.