HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Like death and taxes, one of the certainties of our existence is that on the Monday preceding a Saturday stakes race, Steve Asmussen will work his horses an easy half-mile in something like 51 and change for their final tune-up. So on Monday morning, just after the renovation break at Oaklawn, his colt Chasing Time hit right on cue, a half-mile in 51.20 seconds under the supervision of assistant Darren Fleming while readying for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Arkansas Derby.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Call Me Jamal was an intended starter in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby on Saturday, but he was not entered Sunday after emerging from a work earlier that morning with filling in a leg, trainer Mike Puhich said Monday at Oaklawn Park.

“He tweaked something,” Puhich said. “He’s never had a hiccup before.”

Call Me Jamal had worked six furlongs in 1:13.40. It was his third work since winning an allowance race here Feb. 26. He is 2 for 3 here this season. He won a maiden race Dec. 18, then was seventh in the Southwest Stakes Jan. 29.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Micro Share, the easy winner of a maiden special weight race for 3-year-old fillies on March 11, will miss the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks on April 9 because of illness.

“I don’t think she’ll make the race,” trainer Richard Mandella said Sunday. “She has an elevated temperature.”

Micro Share won a one-mile race by 4 1/2 lengths at 2-5 on March 11, in her third start.

ARCADIA, Calif. – An appreciative Joe Bravo, who began riding in Southern California last summer, was honored between races at Santa Anita on Sunday with the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award.

The award is presented by the track through a vote of riders nationwide, reflecting success on the track and personal character.

Bravo, 50, was joined in the winner’s circle by many active riders at Santa Anita as well as retired jockeys Frank Olivares, Laffit Pincay Jr., and Don Pierce, past recipients of the Woolf award.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Queen Goddess has become a multiple graded-stakes winner in recent months with victories in races on dirt and turf. The key to success has been races at longer distances, which has left trainer Michael McCarthy curious if the 4-year-old filly can develop into a prospect for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf by the fall.

Saturday at Santa Anita, McCarthy watched Queen Goddess win her first stakes on turf in the Grade 3 Santa Ana Stakes at 1 1/4 miles.

“She’s on top of her game,” McCarthy said. “She seems to want the added furlongs.”

Following one of her best performances yet, Shifty She now will wait for the Grade 1 Just a Game on June 11 at Belmont Park, according to the connections of the speedy 6-year-old mare.

Shifty She was thoroughly dominant Sunday in the 19th annual Florida Cup series at Tampa Bay Downs, controlling the Distaff Turf from the outset in a four-length triumph. The Distaff Turf was one of six $110,000 stakes restricted to Florida-breds held amid ideal conditions at the Oldsmar, Fla., track.

Stan Salter, who has been involved in racing for some 30 years in various capacities, will make his training debut Wednesday at Tampa Bay Downs, saddling a first-time starter named Two Spot in the fourth race.

Salter, 47, was galloping horses in his teens before becoming a producer and host of racing-related shows on television and radio in Maryland, as well as a racing official. Salter has been living in a tack room on the Tampa backstretch since mid-January while preparing Two Spot, his only horse, for her debut.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Messier, one of the nation’s leading 3-year-olds, worked six furlongs in 1:11.40 at Santa Anita on Sunday for a scheduled start in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 9.

The workout was Messier’s first major exercise since a recent transfer from trainer Bob Baffert to Tim Yakteen.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- Trainer Brian Lynch said that he wanted to sleep on the decision one more night but in all likelihood plans to call an audible that would re-direct Tampa Bay Derby winner Classic Causeway to the $1 million Florida Derby next Saturday at Gulfstream Park rather than to the Blue Grass at Keeneland the following week as originally intended.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- Uno Ojo put in his final work for the Arkansas Derby on Saturday at Oaklawn Park, as the number of rivals the Rebel winner will face is starting to grow. 

The Grade 1, $1.25 million Arkansas Derby is set for next Saturday, April 2. Entries will be taken on Sunday.  

The Skipper Too, who was second to unbeaten We the People in a recent allowance at Oaklawn, is headed for the Arkansas Derby, his new trainer, John Ortiz, said on Saturday.