OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher is already a force in virtually every category, but owner Mike Repole is looking to expand the five-time Eclipse Award winner’s horizons by turning him into a claiming trainer.

In the last two months, Repole and Pletcher have claimed three horses, including Calibrachoa, who in his first start off the claim won the $65,000 Gravesend Stakes and is the horse to beat in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct. In the last two weeks, Repole and Pletcher claimed Have You Ever and Writingonthewall for a combined $85,000.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Rafe, who came charging from last to post an eye-catching win in his career debut, will try winners for the first time Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs when he tops a field of eight 3-year-olds in the ninth race, a first-level optional $75,000 claimer at a mile on turf.

Chief of Affairs, Gold Coyote, and Goosey Moose will all launch comebacks Saturday night during the Texas Champions Day program at Sam Houston Race Park. The trio will meet in the $50,000 Spirit of Texas, which is one of seven restricted stakes worth a cumulative $400,000.

Texas Champions Day is the richest card of the Sam Houston meet that opened Friday. Others set to make an appearance on the program include Taptam, who will face males in the $100,000 Star of Texas, and Aces N Kings, who cuts back to one turn for the $50,000 Groovy.

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NEW ORLEANS – No one is calling the 3-year-old colt Justin Phillip bipolar, schizophrenic, or anything like that. “Quirky” was the word his trainer, Steve Asmussen, chose to describe him.

“Ninety percent of the time he’s fine,” Asmussen said Thursday morning at Fair Grounds. “The other 10 percent, you just don’t know.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs has set the dates for the three three-day pools in the 2011 Kentucky Derby Future Wager while announcing that exacta wagering will be offered for the first time in the single Kentucky Oaks Future Wager pool.

The dates are Feb. 18-20, March 11-13, and April 1-3.

This is the 13th year for the Future Wager, which has undergone a number of changes through the years. The latest is exactas in the Oaks pool, which will again run concurrently with Derby Pool 2. Exactas were first offered on Derby futures during Pool 2 of 2009.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The 2011 Preakness is still more than four months away, but the MI Developments Preakness 5.5 kicks off here next Sunday with the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes. The Preakness 5.5 is a $5.5 million bonus that will be awarded to the owner and trainer of any 3-year-old who wins a series of races at MID tracks culminating with the Preakness at Pimlico on May 21.

Champagne d’Oro, the fourth-place finisher in the Grade 2 El Encino Stakes last Sunday, will be given three months’ rest after suffering a bout with colic after that race that required a brief hospitalization, trainer Eric Guillot said.

Champagne d’Oro was sent to a local clinic on Sunday and returned to Guillot’s stable on Wednesday. The trainer said the 4-year-old Champagne d’Oro will return to training in May.

Champ Pegasus may be bound for Dubai in March, depending on his performance in the $150,000 San Luis Obispo Stakes over 1 1/2 miles on turf on Feb. 19.

Trainer Richard Mandella said he needs to see a win, or a top effort, from Champ Pegasus to justify a trip to Dubai for the $5 million Sheema Classic against an international field over about 1 1/2 miles on turf on March 26.

Champ Pegasus, second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs in November, finished second in his 2011 debut in Monday’s Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes, losing to Bourbon Bay.

The last time Turfway Park ran a stakes for 3-year-old fillies, Dr. Diamonds Prize was a four-length winner of the Gowell for jockey Jozbin Santana and trainer Mark Hubley.

Nearly a month later, Dr. Diamonds Prize will stay in the Hubley barn at the Thoroughbred training center in Lexington while 10 3-year-old fillies convene Saturday in the $50,000 Cincinnati Trophy at Turfway.

Russian Lane, who dominated New Mexico-bred 2-year-olds in 2010, will make his first start at 3 on Saturday in the $120,000 Pepsi Cola at Sunland Park.

A field of nine will go in the six-furlong race, which is restricted to statebreds.