OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Morning Matcha began her career last June at Monmouth Park, and the Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Central Banker has been a gal on the go ever since. Saturday, the Parx Racing-based filly returns to New York for the Grade 3, $250,000 Gazelle Stakes trying to earn a spot in the Kentucky Oaks on May 6.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – For a horse that’s won five graded stakes, two of which are Grade 1s, and banked more than $1.4 million, Mind Control seems like he always flies under the radar.

Mind Control again figures to be overlooked when he makes his 6-year-old debut against the likes of Speaker’s Corner, First Captain, and five others in Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap, one of five undercard stakes on the 11-race Wood Memorial program.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Early Voting will use Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct to cast his ballot on whether to push forward to the Kentucky Derby in four weeks.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Back in 2006, Todd Pletcher got all the way up to 50 starters at the Keeneland spring meet, and that wasn’t a radical outlier. Pletcher ran 47 horses in 2008 and regularly had 30 or more starters during Aprils at Keeneland. That pace slowed considerably in recent years, with Pletcher down to just 13 runners during the spring meet of 2017, but the Hall of Fame trainer said he plans greater participation during this April meeting.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The last few weeks in Florida were the calm before the Chad Brown storm.

Brown has made a habit of using the winter months to mostly prepare for richer races in Kentucky and New York while racing sparingly – a relative term, given the depth of his stable – at Gulfstream Park, where he went 16 for 61 with three stakes wins, and at Tampa Bay Downs, where he was a gaudy 18 for 39, also with three stakes wins.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine Entertainment, in partnership with Century Mile, has announced the winner of this year’s Grade 3 Canadian Derby will be awarded free entry to the Grade 3 Ontario Derby, with the potential of earning a $50,000 bonus.

The Canadian Derby will be run Aug. 20 at Century Mile in Edmonton, Alberta. The winner will receive free entry to the Oct. 23 Ontario Derby at Woodbine. If a horse captures both events, the winning connections will receive a bonus of $50,000, offered evenly by Woodbine and Century Mile.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The first weekend of April has revived the season of 2021 champion apprentice Jessica Pyfer.

In the first three months of the year, Pyfer had 1 win from 42 mounts at Santa Anita. On Saturday and Sunday, she rode a winner on each program, including a late pickup mount on Pinedale in the fourth race Sunday.

Pyfer said a third-place finish on 23-1 Race Judicata on Friday for her stepfather, trainer Phil D’Amato, provided a boost.

“I rode one for my dad and was third,” she said. “I had so much fun.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Two races into her American career, Excelerina is undefeated, but has yet to show her best effort.

That’s the point of view of trainer Phil D’Amato, who will test Excelerina in Saturday’s Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Santa Anita.

Excelerina was winless in three modest races in Ireland last year, but won a maiden special weight race by 2 1/2 lengths on Feb. 6 and an allowance race by 2 1/4 lengths on March 11. Flavien Prat rode Excelerina in those races, which were run at 1 1/8 miles.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Neither rain nor cold nor the gloomy end to the basketball season will prevent the Keeneland spring meet from opening this weekend to great enthusiasm here in the Bluegrass region and beyond.

“We all wish the forecast was better,” Gatewood Bell, now in his second year as vice president of racing at Keeneland, said early Monday, “but it won’t stop us from having a great start to the meet.”

ARCADIA, Calif. - Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella has at least one 3-year-old bound for Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.

On Saturday at Santa Anita, Sumter won his third consecutive start in the $100,000 Singletary Stakes at a mile on turf, which is likely to lead to a start in the Grade 2 American Turf Stakes at Churchill Downs on May 7.