On Dec. 26, 2009 at Santa Anita, M One Rifle overcame an outside post in a field of 13 to win the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes from the front at 7-1 for the legendary California trainer Bruce Headley.

Headley, who died in 2021 at the age of 86, was an ace trainer with sprinters, notably the champion Kona Gold.

This year, again on Dec. 26, his daughter Karen will attempt to win her first Malibu Stakes with the outsider Smooth Cruisein, who has placed in two stakes this year.

Handle increased more than 22 percent at the two-week daytime Thoroughbred autumn meeting at Los Alamitos that ended on Sunday compared to the corresponding season in 2024, according to figures compiled by Daily Racing Form.

Total handle on races run at Los Alamitos was $17,492,588, significantly higher than $14,307,104 at the 2024 autumn meeting. Both meetings had six days of racing. Handle on races run at the 2023 autumn meeting was more than $17.7 million.

Lyle The Crocodile, third in two restricted stakes at a mile on turf at Del Mar earlier this year, will have his first start in a graded stakes in the Grade 2 Mathis Mile for 3-year-olds at a mile on turf at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, the opening day of the track’s winter-spring meeting.

Lyle The Crocodile won two races on the all-weather surface at Dundalk, Ireland, last winter, and is winless in five starts in the United States for trainer Phil D’Amato.

D’Amato has won the Mathis Mile three times, most recently last year with King of Gosford.

Tamara, a Grade 1 winner in 2023, is scheduled to have her first start as a 5-year-old in the Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 4.

On Monday, Tamara worked five furlongs at Santa Anita in 59.20 seconds, the fastest of 75 recorded works at the distance.

The $100,000 Las Flores is run at six furlongs for fillies and mares and leads to the Grade 2 D. Wayne Lukas Stakes, a $200,000 race for fillies and mares at seven furlongs on Feb. 7. The Lukas Stakes was previously known as the Santa Monica Stakes.

A trio of stakes for 3-year-old males and a pair of races for 3-year-old fillies that offer qualifying points to the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks, respectively, highlight the 2026 Aqueduct winter stakes program announced Wednesday by the New York Racing Association. 

There are 45 scheduled cards during the winter meet that runs Jan. 1- March 29. Racing will be conducted mostly four days a week (Thursdays through Sundays) until Feb. 20, when racing will be held three days a week (Fridays through Sundays) through March 29. 

Parx Racing will cancel its third straight day of racing on Wednesday due to inclement weather. The track has been deemed unfit for racing due to a sharp drop in temperature in the last two days, compounded by the effects of a snowstorm earlier this week.

On Sunday into early Monday, the area around the Bensalem, Pa., track received approximately eight inches of snow. Temperatures during the storm dropped below freezing and have remained low since. Track announcer Jessica Paquette confirmed that the harsh conditions since the storm prevented Parx from reopening this week.