HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – When trainer Chad Brown entered Honeymoon Girl in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf here at Gulfstream Park a couple of weeks ago, he was still uncertain whether to rush his promising but still relatively inexperienced grass filly into stakes company just yet. After Honeymoon Girl drew post position 14, the decision about whether to run her was made.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Somebody from Oaklawn Park must have said the wrong thing to Mother Nature.

There has not been a whole lot of racing going on at Oaklawn since the season opened a day later than scheduled because of inclement weather on Jan. 15. The track has lost six of its first 16 dates, with the most severe hit coming last week, when Oaklawn was forced to call off four consecutive days, from Thursday through Sunday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Bob Baffert and Doug O’Neill may be atop the trainers’ standings at Santa Anita, but it is John Sadler, currently in third place, who is having the best meet of all.

This past weekend, Sadler won the Strub Stakes with Twirling Candy, the Las Virgenes with Zazu, and the San Antonio with newcomer Gladding. That followed by one week the victory by Switch in the Santa Monica Handicap. And that followed by one month opening-day stakes wins by Twirling Candy in the Malibu, Switch in the La Brea, and Sidney’s Candy in the Sir Beaufort.

The field for the Grade 3, $200,000 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate on Saturday will include the third Grade 1 winner in the race’s history: Comma to the Top, the likely favorite, won the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity in December at Hollywood Park.

The other Grade 1 winners to have run in the race were Snow Chief, the 1986 El Camino winner, and Cara Rafaela, the first filly to run in the El Camino when she was fourth as the beaten favorite in 1996.

Drosselmeyer, winner of the 2010 Belmont Stakes in his most recent race, is scheduled to make his first start since the last leg of the Triple Crown in the Feb. 19 Mineshaft Handicap at Fair Grounds, trainer Bill Mott confirmed Tuesday morning. If Drosselmeyer performs to expectations there, he will move on to contest the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 26.

Mott said the Mineshaft offers a good opportunity to shake the rust off Drosselmeyer, who will be making his first start after an 8 1/2-month break.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Dianne Cotter said she didn’t have seller’s remorse after watching Bellamy Road go through the auction ring in 2004 as a 2-year-old for $87,000 and return a year later for George Steinbrenner to win the Wood Memorial by 17 1/2 lengths and head to Louisville as the Kentucky Derby favorite.

That Mike Hushion had Common Currency ready to win a New York-bred maiden race Saturday off a seven-month layoff was a good sign for the trainer. In the coming weeks, Hushion will try to bring back two stakes winners off even longer absences.

OZONE PARK, N.Y.– Annual Appeal needs a strong pace to be most effective and she just might get it in Wednesday’s featured $44,000 first-level allowance race going six furlongs at Aqueduct.

In a field of mostly maiden winners, Annual Appeal, a 4-year-old daughter of Successful Appeal, has recorded three victories, all of them coming when the pace has been hot and heavy in front of her. The last of those victories came on Nov. 14 at Parx Racing when she came from seven lengths off the pace to win a starter allowance by one-half length.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Nick Zito said both Morning Line and Fly Down came out of Saturday’s Grade 1 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park in good order and both remain under consideration for a possible trip to Dubai for the World Cup.

DUBAI RACING CARNIVAL: Past performances, race analysis, and results

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - One day after watching one of his top Kentucky Derby prospects, Casper’s Touch, suffer through a horrendous trip in his 3-year-old debut at Gulfstream Park on Saturday, trainer Ken McPeek was calm and composed discussing the unfortunate circumstances that led to the colt’s second-place finish as the even-money favorite in the nine-furlong, entry-level allowance event