Country Grammer, Idol, and Tripoli, Grade 1 winners at 1 1/4 miles in Southern California in 2021, will miss the Big Cap.

Country Grammer, trained by Bob Baffert, was entered in the Saudi Cup. Last May, Country Grammer won the Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita.

Idol won the 2021 Big Cap, catching Express Train in the stretch, but has not raced since a sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita in October. Idol recently resumed workouts for trainer Richard Baltas at the San Luis Rey Downs training center.

Flavien Prat, the leading rider at the current Santa Anita meeting, will ride Warrant in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 5, the track’s leading race for older horses.

Warrant, trained by Brad Cox for Twin Creeks Racing Stable, has won 3 of 8 starts and earned $649,700. Warrant is the lone shipper expected for the $650,000 Santa Anita Handicap and is scheduled to arrive in California from Louisiana on Tuesday, Cox said in a text message Friday.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. will be sidelined for much of next week and beyond – with the notable exception of the Saturday stakes – after being suspended five days by the Gulfstream stewards for the disqualification of his mount, Princess Cupid, from first to third in the sixth race here Wednesday.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A capacity field of 12 3-year-olds could be taking shape for the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth, a critical Kentucky Derby prep to be run at Gulfstream Park next Saturday.

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, a three-time winner of the Fountain of Youth, will have at least one of the favorites for the 1 1/16-mile race in Emmanuel. Pletcher also has Mo Donegal under consideration, depending on how the colt was to work this weekend at his Palm Beach Downs winter base.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Hollis, who set a track record in December at Oaklawn, won his second allowance of the meet last week and is now poised to return to stakes competition. Trainer John Ortiz said Hollis is being pointed to the Grade 3, $200,000 Whitmore on March 19 at Oaklawn.

The horse’s long-range goal remains the Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap here April 16. Ortiz said Ricardo Santana Jr., who has been riding Hollis, is committed to the horse for the remainder of Oaklawn’s meet.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Multiple Grade 2 winner Lone Rock will be moving back to a marathon distance for his next start, trainer Robertino Diodoro said Wednesday.

“We’ll wait for the Temperence Hill,” he said.

The 1 1/2-mile race is set for April 2 at Oaklawn. The purse is $150,000.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Happy Soul’s win in the $150,000 Dixie Belle last weekend at Oaklawn Park was a special victory for the family of her jockey, John Velazquez.

Trainer Wesley Ward said shortly after the stakes he got a call from the rider’s wife, Leona.

“She said ‘The race meant so much to us,’ ’’ Ward recalled. “She said, ‘My mother just died. All of us were cheering the filly. It was an upbeat moment for a sad day, because of the name, Happy Soul.’ ”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. notched the 3,000th win of his stellar riding career in North America when guiding Order and Law to a 4 1/4-length triumph in the fourth race Thursday at Gulfstream Park.

Order and Law, a 6-year-old ridgling trained by Mike Maker, raced in mid-pack in the one-mile turf race before circling rivals and drawing clear in the final furlong. He paid $7.20. The victory came some 30 minutes after Ortiz drew within one win of the milestone by riding Pirate Life ($9) to a half-length score in the day’s third race.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A pair of pick-five wagers linking major stakes at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita will be offered to racing fans for the first time next Saturday, March 5.

The new bets are the Coast to Coast All Dirt Stakes Pick 5 and the Coast to Coast All Turf Stakes Pick 5. They are being introduced by executives at 1/ST tracks as a way to “create more big events” involving the company’s two flagship tracks that host major wintertime racing, 1/ST president Aidan Butler said.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While trainer Tony Dutrow sent out his graded stakes-placed 3-year-old Un Ojo to another trainer for Saturday’s Rebel at Oaklawn Park on Tuesday, he welcomed into his Belmont barn a trio of horses he hopes will have successful campaigns in 2022.

Miss Brazil, a stakes-winning filly; High Opinion, a multiple graded stakes-placed turf horse; and Predicted, a well-bred maiden 3-year-old, all arrived back at Dutrow’s barn Sunday after vacations.