HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Cogburn launched his 4-year-old season with a sharp allowance win Feb. 5 at Oaklawn and is being pointed to the Grade 3, $200,000 Whitmore on March 18 at Oaklawn, trainer Steve Asmussen said.

In his first start since May, Cogburn covered six furlongs in 1:09.87 on Feb. 5 and equaled his best Beyer Speed Figure, a 95.

“Nice horse, nice comeback,” Asmussen said.

Osbourne is another 4-year-old who launched his season with an impressive allowance win at Oaklawn. He will be considered for a start in the Whitmore, trainer Ron Moquett said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – An untimely setback to the improving 3-year-old colt Newgate has knocked the Bob Baffert trainee off the Kentucky Derby trail.

Days after Newgate won the highly rated Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Feb. 4 at Santa Anita, racing manager Tom Ryan announced Friday on Twitter that Newgate has been sidelined with a “minor hock issue.”

Slammed, winner of the Grade 2 TCA Stakes at Keeneland in October, has resumed training at Sunland Park in New Mexico with the expectation she will race in California later this year.

A 5-year-old New Mexico-bred mare, Slammed has not started since she finished last of 12 in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland on Nov. 5. She set the pace in that seven-furlong race before fading through the stretch.

“She just came back into training,” trainer Todd Fincher said earlier this week. “It’s easy, light training.

Hopkins won his first stakes in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita last Sunday. He is scheduled to run next in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen Sprint in Dubai on March 25, trainer Bob Baffert said on Thursday.

A 5-year-old horse by Quality Road, Hopkins won the $200,500 Palos Verdes Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths, finishing six furlongs in 1:08.80. Ridden by Juan Hernandez, Hopkins stalked pacesetter Straight No Chaser to early stretch before pulling clear.

Hopkins has won 3 of 7 starts and earned $244,700.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Keeneland Racecourse will make its tailgating amenities available on Sundays for the first time during this year’s spring meet starting April 7, the track said Thursday.

The tailgating area, known as the Hill, has become immensely popular over the past decade. Amenities, which included a jumbotron showing live races, a covered bank of live tellers and self-service machines, and food trucks, were previously only made available on Fridays and Saturdays. Keeneland also provides shuttles from the Hill to the racetrack gates.

Sun Thunder, fourth behind leading 3-year-old Arabian Knight facing other winners for the first time in the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn, will be one of at least three horses that trainer Ken McPeek intends to run on the Feb. 18 card at Fair Grounds.   

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Gun Pilot is being considered for a Kentucky Derby points race following his Feb. 4 allowance win at Oaklawn Park.  

Trainer Steve Asmussen said Wednesday that the horse is under consideration for the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel on Feb. 25 at Oaklawn.  

None of the projected runners in Saturday’s $100,000 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields have a Triple Crown pedigree quite like the unbeaten colt Harcyn.

Owned by Jerry Moss, Harcyn is from the family of half-brothers Giacomo, the winner of the 2005 Kentucky Derby, and Tiago, who won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in 2007 and was seventh behind Street Sense in the Kentucky Derby.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – The Suncoast Stakes was supposed to be one of those nice-and-easy comeback spots for Wonder Wheel.

And then the entries came in.

Julia Shining, a Stonestreet Stables homebred whose promising 2-year-old season ended with a gritty victory in the Grade 2 Demoiselle, will keep Wonder Wheel from being a 1-5 shot when the two meet for the first time Saturday in the $100,000 Suncoast at Tampa Bay Downs.

Though he was a fast, elite 2-year-old last season, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up Cave Rock is taking his own sweet time at age 3. Cave Rock is the only horse on the Derby Watch list without a race or workout in 2023. Cave Rock is galloping daily at Santa Anita, and trainer Bob Baffert said the colt is nearing his first comeback work.

“I’m not pressing him, I’m not forcing him to do anything,” Baffert said Sunday. “He’s going to start breezing in a couple weeks. There’s nothing set in stone. He’s going to let me know. I did lose two weeks during the rain. That set me back.”