ELMONT, N.Y. - Aloha West, the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner, blitzed five furlongs in 58.60 seconds Friday morning at Churchill Downs in preparation for his meeting on June 11 with Flightline and Speaker’s Corner in the Grade 1, $1 million Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park.

Churchill clocker John Nichols caught Aloha West’s three furlongs in 34.60 seconds, and had his last quarter in 24-flat while galloping out six furlongs in 1:11.60 and seven furlongs in 1:25.20.

“That’s not with company or sticking him,” trainer Wayne Catalano said. “That’s pretty damn good.”

Taiba, who finished 12^th as the 5-1 second choice in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 7, worked three furlongs in 36.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday.

The workout was the first for Taiba since he finished 17 3/4 lengths behind winner Rich Strike in the 20-runner Kentucky Derby, the colt’s third start.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Smash Ticket was a smashing winner of her 3-year-old debut on Monday at Lone Star Park and she could be part of an expanded division of horses trainer Todd Fincher plans to send to Del Mar for the summer meet that opens in July.

“We’re planning on taking a few more this year,” Fincher said. “I only ended up taking four or five last year. We’d like to bring 10, 12.”

Hot Rod Charlie, second in the $12 million Dubai World Cup in March, will have his first start of the year in the United States in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile at Monmouth Park on June 18.

Trainer Doug O’Neill said on Friday that the distance of the $150,000 Salvator Mile is preferred over the 1 1/8 miles of the Grade 2 Stephen Foster Stakes at Churchill Downs on July 2 for Hot Rod Charlie’s first start since the Dubai World Cup. O’Neill had mentioned the Foster Stakes as an option in recent weeks.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Letruska was sent through her final pre-race work for the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont on June 11 when she went five furlongs Friday in 1:00.40 over a fast Churchill surface.

Letruska was scheduled to leave here no later than Sunday for New York, where she’ll be looking to stay unbeaten in three starts at 6 and seeking to repeat in the Phipps on the Belmont Stakes undercard. The Super Saver mare won the Phipps last year on her way to earning the Eclipse Award for top filly-mare dirt runner.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Greg Foley said Sconsin is a possibility to go next in the Grade 3 Chicago, to be run here June 25. Sconsin earned a 94 Beyer Speed Figure as a measured winner of the Grade 3 Winning Colors on Monday in her 5-year-old debut.

Foley said he wants to “keep her fat and sassy” for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, and that he is working backward from that Nov. 5 race at Keeneland.

“We’ll map it out how to get there,” he said.

Quite a few top-class performers showed up on the work tab last weekend at Churchill for Brad Cox and Steve Asmussen.

For Cox, those workers included Mandaloun (five furlongs in 1:00.60), Shedaresthedevil (four furlongs in 48.80), Arklow (three furlongs in 39.40), Cyberknife (four furlongs in 47.60), and Tawny Port (four furlongs in 48.80). All breezed Sunday except Shedaresthedevil, who worked the previous morning.

Kenny McPeek, whose lone stakes entry here Saturday is Crazy Beautiful in the Shawnee, no longer intends to send Tiz the Bomb to England for his next start, as had been considered. Instead, the colt is now being pointed to the Belmont Derby and Saratoga Derby after finishing ninth in the May 7 Kentucky Derby in his latest start.

McPeek recently assumed the training of Classic Causeway, 11th in the Derby, and intends to work him here Saturday. After observing the colt for the last week or so, “he’s doing everything right,” said McPeek. “He’s solid.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brian Lynch is going so good that even Mother Nature is on his side. Wet weather led Lynch to scratch Admission Office from an off-the-turf allowance last Thursday at Churchill Downs, and now the stretch-running 7-year-old has resurfaced in a potential winning spot.

“This is our big meet,” said Lynch, who sent out four winners, all with different jockeys, over the Memorial Day weekend at Churchill. “We really focused on having some horses ready for this meet, and it’s been a great start.”

Simulcasting operations at Suffolk Downs in East Boston, Mass., are on hold after a late-night fire destroyed the track’s television control room and other facilities, according to the chief executive of the company that runs the track.