Saturday’s California Derby at Golden Gate Fields is a stepping-stone to next month’s Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby, but it’s hard to envision a better stakes race being held here this year.

The $100,000 1 1/16-mile race drew a full field of 12 runners, seven of them coming off a victory.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Three prominent 3-year-olds worked Wednesday in Southern California.

Turbulent Descent, the leading 3-year-old filly on the circuit, worked five furlongs in 1:00.60 at Hollywood Park. The winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet last month, Turbulent Descent will make her 2011 debut in the $250,000 Las Virgenes Stakes over a mile at Santa Anita on Feb. 5.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Blind Luck, a leading contender for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding 3-year-old filly of 2010, worked a half-mile in 48 seconds Wednesday, preparing for her 2011 debut in Sunday’s $150,000 El Encino Stakes for 4-year-old fillies.

Dan Ward, assistant to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, timed Blind Luck in 23.40 seconds through the final quarter-mile of her workout. The El Encino will be Blind Luck’s first start since a second in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5. Blind Luck has won 9 of 15 starts and $2,388,712.

A year after Zenyatta shipped in for the Apple Blossom, the filly and mare ranks at Oaklawn are quite deep. Larry Jones has three of the best females on the grounds in Havre de Grace, who was third in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Ladies' Classic in her last start Nov. 5; No Such Word, who took the Grade 1 Gazelle at Aqueduct in her most recent out Nov. 27; and Payton d’Oro, a Grade 2 winner of more than $400,000.

I Want Revenge continues to work forwardly for his 2011 debut, which is expected to come in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap on Feb. 5.

Working immediately after the first renovation break and into a very strong headwind down the backstretch, I Want Revenge posted splits of 24.66 seconds, 36.98, and 49.47 before completing the distance in 1:13.80 with a final quarter in 24.23.

“I was very happy with the work,” trainer Dick Dutrow said. “And if he keeps working like he did this morning he’ll run in the Donn.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Square Eddie, winner of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity in 2008 but a horse plagued by injuries and setbacks for the last two years, comes out of retirement after an 11-month layoff in an optional claimer over 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on Friday.

Despite the gap between races, and Square Eddie’s seven-race losing streak dating to the Breeders’ Futurity, trainer Doug O’Neill is highly confident about the 5-year-old’s chances.

“He’s ready to win,” O’Neill said. “His times are solid, and he’s bouncing out of his works.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – There were 2,422 racehorses on the backstretches at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park earlier this month, Santa Anita director of racing Mike Harlow said Wednesday, a drop of about 400 horses from a census taken by racing officials in early September.

The reduction in inventory, caused by reasons such as injuries, retirement, and the relocation of horses to other circuits, struck Santa Anita on Sunday when the track did not draw entries as scheduled for Friday’s eight-race program. Friday’s entries were taken Wednesday; the program features 57 entrants.

With its tight-turned bullring configuration, shadowy night racing, and a tricky track surface some horses fail to handle, Delta Downs is full of potential pitfalls. It seems like it takes a certain sort of horse to successfully ship in to the little track in Western Louisiana.

“I think it does,” said trainer Bret Calhoun. “But I just don’t know what it is, except for trying them.”

Cash Refund showed he still can turn in a high-class sprint performance when he won for the fifth time in as many Fair Grounds tries in an allowance race Saturday, but that will be one of only two appearances Cash Refund is expected to make at the ongoing meet.

Trainer Steve Margolis said Cash Refund would now be pointed to the $100,000 Duncan Kenner Stakes on March 26, a race he won in 2010.

“I think we’ll sit and be patient,” Margolis said. “He’s had three races fairly close together.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It would seem that winning three races on one card at Aqueduct would be a relatively unique accomplishment. Yet, in 22 racing programs from Dec. 4 through Sunday, five trainers have scored the hat trick, including two who did it on the same day.

On Friday, Carlos Martin could join the fraternity that, this winter, includes Todd Pletcher, Mike Hushion, Chris Englehart, Rudy Rodriguez, and Gary Contessa.

Martin has runners in five of Friday’s nine races, and most seem to have some chance in a card highlighted by a starter allowance feature.