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.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Todd Pletcher sent three of his top 3-year-old prospects out to work at Palm Meadows on Monday, including the undefeated and untested Discreet Dancer, who went a very easy half-mile in 51.09 seconds before galloping out five-eighths in 1:04.60. He was followed by El Padrino, third as the favorite in the Grade 3 Remsen, who went five furlongs in 1:02.83 while going easiest of a set that included Heavy Breathing.

If he were so inclined, trainer Merrill Scherer might spin a wizard’s tale of how he turned Santo Gato around this winter at Fair Grounds. A 4-year-old Kitten’s Joy gelding, Santo Gato came into the meet a 16-start maiden, with losses in turf routes and turf sprints, on dirt and Polytrack, and in races from New Orleans to New York. But he comes into Wednesday’s featured eighth race with two straight wins, the most recent a dominant first-level allowance victory in a turf sprint.

Prairie Meadows has hired Fred Hutton as racing secretary for the upcoming racing season, according to Prairie Meadows director of racing Derron Heldt.

Hutton, 54, was racing secretary at Remington Park for 11 seasons, from 2000-2010, and at Zia Park last year. He also has served as racing secretary at Yavapai, Les Bois, and Yellowstone Downs.

Hutton replaces Dan Doocy, who resigned last August.

Hutton said he will begin working at the Altoona, Iowa racetrack in March to prepare for the opening of the 67-day Thoroughbred meet on April 20.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – The strength of the local handicap division will be on display here over the next several weeks, beginning with Saturday’s Florida Sunshine Millions Classic and continuing Feb. 11 with the Grade 1 Donn Handicap.

One horse who figures to fit right into the upper echelon of the local division but who will be sitting out both those races is last year’s Florida Derby winner, Dialed In. Trainer Nick Zito is taking his time bringing Dialed In back from minor surgery that put a premature end to his 3-year-old campaign following the Preakness.

Golden Gate Fields was not selected as the site of a second campus for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the laboratory announced on Monday.

Golden Gate Fields was one of several sites being considered as a site for the laboratory’s second campus, and had it been chosen it almost certainly would have meant the end of racing at the Albany, Calif., track.

Lawrence Berkeley announced it will build its campus in nearby Richmond.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Chad Brown hoped to be running his promising 3-year-old turf horse Liquidity Trap last weekend in the Kitten’s Joy Stakes. Instead, Liquidity Trap will wait until Wednesday, when he takes on allowance competition for a second time in the $53,500 feature at Gulfstream Park to be decided at a mile on the turf.