OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Winter is usually the season for apprentice riders to shine in New York. Irad Ortiz Jr. has proven to be a rider for all seasons.

Though he will lose his apprentice status roughly halfway through the winter meet, Ortiz is still likely to be the leading bug boy at Aqueduct during the inner track season which runs through March 31. Ortiz, 19, got his winter off to a great start on Wednesday, winning three races on the card. He added two more on Thursday, guiding Quiet Favorite to victory in the fourth race and Siggi the Alien in the sixth.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Jockey Patrick Valenzuela is expected to return to riding at Santa Anita on Dec. 26 after undergoing recent gall bladder surgery.

Tom Knust, Valenzuela’s agent, said on Thursday that the jockey is expected to return to California this weekend, and is still recovering from the Nov. 24 operation. Knust said the Dec. 26 opening day of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting is the targeted date for a comeback. A return at the current Hollywood Park fall meeting, which runs through Dec. 18, is unlikely, Knust said.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – It has been 26 years since owner James Sabiston won the 1985 Ontario Lassie Stakes under the Longview Farm banner with Grecian Touch. Sabiston has a good chance to capture the $150,000 race for Ontario-bred 2-year-old fillies again Saturday at Woodbine, with the Ralph Biamonte-trained stakes winner Rose and Shine.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Suzzona, a winner of six of her last eight starts, tops an overflow field of 14 filly and mare turf sprinters entered for Saturday’s opening day feature Tampa Bay Downs, the $75,000 Lightning City Stakes.

Trained by Benny Feliciano Jr., Suzzona has won 22 of 46 lifetime races and has won 11 of her last 18 trips to the post. Winner of last season’s edition of the Lightning City with a late rally, Suzzona has been no worse than third in her last nine outings on the grass.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Ask any racing fan which jockey has won the last two riding titles at Gulfstream Park and it’s a good bet few will come up with the correct answer, Paco Lopez.

Santa Anita Park suffered damage to its barn area and canceled simulcast wagering on Thursday after an overnight windstorm struck the area with high winds.

The track was with without electricity as of late morning Thursday. The pre-dawn storm, which was widely forecast, caused the collapse of the exterior walls of at least two stables where trainers Doug O’Neill and Tim Yakteen keep horses. Both trainers reported that their horses and staffs were not injured. O’Neill said he had no horses based at his Santa Anita stable, with his division across town at Hollywood Park.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Tres Borrachos was an overlooked 30-1 outsider when he rallied through the Churchill Downs stretch to finish third in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5.

There will be no longshot prices when Tres Borrachos starts as the expected favorite in Saturday’s $100,000 Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood Park.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Tampa Bay Downs, which begins its 86th season of racing Saturday, annually offers offers some of the largest average field sizes in the country and a stakes program highlighted by the Tampa Bay Derby. This year Tampa will add technology to its simulcast feed that will make it easier for fans to follow their selections during a race.

The Gulfstream Park meeting begins Saturday and one Woodbine trainer who will be on hand is Darwin Banach.

Town Prize, the 2-year-old colt whom Banach trains for Bill Sorokolit, is among eight entrants in the $100,000 Spectacular Bid, the opening-day feature at six furlongs.

Bred by Sorokolit in Kentucky, Town Prize sandwiched wins in a maiden race and a first-level allowance sprint around a third-place finish in the Colin Stakes in his three starts at the Woodbine meeting.

Keith Bourgeois won his 2,000th race as a trainer on Wednesday night, when Dynamic Time ($8.40) scored by a nose in the sixth race at Delta Downs in Vinton, La. Bourgeois registered the first win of his career on Oct. 22, 1988, at the now-shuttered Jefferson Downs. Overall, he has had 11,204 starters, who have earned a collective $26,515,591.

Bourgeois has won seven training titles at Delta. He also is a multiple title winner at Evangeline Downs. Bourgeois’s most notable year as a trainer came in 2009, when he ranked 10th in wins in North America with 192.