OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Favorites are winning at better than a 40-percent clip (119 for 292) on the inner track this winter, and there will be no shortage of short-priced propositions on Thursday. Token Sacrifice (1st race), Surround Sound (2nd), Union Victory (3rd) and Tycoon Cat (9th) are all pegged at even money or lower by Eric Donovan, the New York Racing Association’s Wizard of Odds.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Following a solid debut win at Aqueduct in late November, Almusafa attempted the always difficult step up in class when put into a stakes race for her second start.

Though beaten only 1 1/4 lengths when fifth in the Ginger Brew Stakes here on Christmas Eve, Almusafa now drops in class when she heads a nine-horse field entered to run in a first-level optional claimer Thursday at Gulfstream Park. The 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies is the featured event on a 10-race card that begins at 12:35 p.m. Eastern.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Arienza, daughter of 2002 Horse of the Year Azeri, who was to make her seasonal debut Sunday at Oaklawn in the $50,000 American Beauty, scratched from that race and will instead return in a more conservative spot Thursday.

Arienza will lead a $40,000 optional claiming sprint that carries second-level allowance conditions. The six-furlong race was offered as an extra over the weekend. It drew seven fillies and mares versus the 11 that went in the American Beauty that Gleaming won with a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 91.

When the Chris Block stable breaks camp in Chicago for the winter, the head trainer remains home while some of his higher-quality stock heads south to Florida and Louisiana.

“Chris doesn’t want to miss his son growing up, so he stays in Chicago,” said Neil Pessin, who has seven of the Block runners at Fair Grounds in New Orleans again this winter.

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has saddled three Kentucky Oaks winners, Lite Light, Pike Place Dancer and his Eclipse Award winner Blind Luck. He knows about 3-year-old fillies.

On Saturday, the Hollendorfer-trained Lady of Fifty completed a sweep of Golden Gate Fields’s series of stakes for fillies born in 2009 by taking the 1 1/16-mile California Oaks in wire-to-wire style. Earlier, Lady of Fifty had won the six-furlong Golden Gate Debutante and the one-mile Corte Madera.

Hollendorfer said there aren’t any suitable races left for Lady of Fifty at Golden Gate.

Golden Gate Fields interim general manager Joe Morris and new racing secretary David Jerkens said before the current meet started that they hoped to add stakes races to the calendar.

Saturday’s $50,000 Albany Stakes is a their first addition to the stakes calendar, and the six-furlong Tapeta race should be a tremendous affair. The Albany matches longtime rivals Sourdough Sam and Shudacudawudya, who ran one-two in last October’s Oakland Stakes, Golden Gate’s only sprint stakes for older runners in 2011.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Owner Ted Nichols and trainer Ron Ellis faced a pivotal decision last month when Teddy’s Promise was ready for the jump from optional claimers to stakes.

Should they try the filly in the Grade 1, $300,000 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Dec. 31, or take a seemingly easier route in the $75,000 Kalookan Queen Handicap against older females a day later?

Ellis conceded the decision to Nichols, and Nichols aimed high. He chose the La Brea.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - One horse who could end up a force in the handicap division before the end of the year is Toby’s Corner, who has not started since upsetting Uncle Mo in the 2011 Wood. Toby’s Corner had been the regular workmate of the recently elected 3-year-old champion Animal Kingdom until Monday when he breezed five-eighths by himself in 1:02.80 at Palm Meadows, tiring some while fighting the headwind through the stretch to complete his final three furlongs in 38.21 seconds.

The 3-year-old filly Applauding, who had to be scratched from the Silverbulletday the morning of the race, returned to training Monday morning, and if all goes well could make her next start in the Martha Washington Stakes on Feb. 11 at Oaklawn Park, trainer Al Stall said.

Trainer Larry Jones’s pair of 3-year-old stakes winners, Believe You Can and Mr. Bowling, took their Saturday starts well, Jones said Monday morning. Both were scheduled to return to the track for morning training Wednesday, and both are headed to the next round of 3-year-old stakes racing on Feb. 25 in New Orleans – Believe You Can to the Rachel Alexandra Stakes and Mr. Bowling to the Risen Star.