Dale Romans has been looking forward to returning to his Kentucky roots. The 43-year-old trainer spent most of this past winter in south Florida, as usual, but like many racetrack lifers, he invokes a familiar refrain as the next move beckons: "Can't wait to get there, love being there, can't wait to leave."

MIAMI, Fla. - Test results on the as-yet unidentified horse who died early Monday morning at Calder have come back negative from the state testing lab at the University of Florida for the equine herpesvirus, track officials confirmed Monday afternoon. As a result, the quarantine on the Calder stable, which restricted horses from travelling in or out of the track, was to be lifted at midnight on Monday.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - While he is too far behind from an experience standpoint to make the Kentucky Derby, Trappe Shot has given every indication he could be a 3-year-old to reckon with in the division as the season progresses. Trappe Shot, a Florida-bred son of Tapit owned by Nicholas Brady's Mill House, posted a 10 1/4-length maiden win here on Feb. 21, then returned Sunday to defeat first-level allowance opposition by an even easier 12 3/4 lengths. Both races were restricted to statebreds.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - While the top three finishers from Saturday's $750,000 Florida Derby, Ice Box, Pleasant Prince, and Rule, will not have another prep before the Kentucky Derby, at least two of the also-rans from the race will likely get another chance to earn a spot in the starting gate at Churchill Downs on May 1.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer Steve Margolis, who for months has regularly shipped in to race at Oaklawn from his Fair Grounds base, is going out a winner. He said Country Day, who took the $60,000 Hot Springs here Saturday, was likely his final starter this season at Oaklawn, with the horse probable to run next in a stakes at Churchill Downs.

The Hot Springs, which was a prep for the Grade 3, $150,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap on April 9, was one of two stakes Margolis won this meet at Oaklawn. Overall, he went 5 for 13 with his local starters, a 38 percent win clip.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Getting Wednesday's $53,000 allowance feature to fill for his stakes-winning New York-bred Fiddlers Afleet figured to be the only real obstacle trainer Mike Hushion faced in hopes of getting an all-important prep into his horse for the $1 million Charles Town Classic on April 17.

He didn't count on the quarantine imposed last Saturday on horses shipping into Gulfstream Park from neighboring Calder Race Course putting the race in jeopardy. Fortunately, the quarantine was liftted Monday evening, and Fiddlers Afleet will get his race.

Delta Downs in Vinton, La., canceled the final nine races on its closing card Saturday night after meeting with jockeys following two spills in the first three races on the program. No riders were seriously injured, according to track officials.

"We had a little bit of weather - blowing rain, it got pretty cold - and the riders felt the track conditions weren't to their liking," said Chris Warren, the director of racing for Delta. "It wasn't a total consensus, but basically, they felt the track wasn't to their liking."

Trainer Todd Pletcher's army of 3-year-olds is encamped en masse along the Kentucky Derby trail. Start with pro tem Derby favorite Eskendereya, and then go on to Rule, Super Saver, and Interactif. Two more - morning-line favorite Discreetly Mine and less proven Mission Impazible - were entered Monday in the Grade 2, $750,000 Louisiana Derby, part of a blockbuster Saturday card on closing weekend at Fair Grounds.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Angel Serpa, the leading apprentice jockey at Aqueduct this winter, was slapped with a 30-day suspension by track stewards for "gross careless riding" in Saturday's .

Serpa, who on Sunday began serving a five-day suspension handed him by the Philadelphia Park stewards for careless riding, won't be eligible to ride again until April 25, closing day of the Aqueduct spring meet.

Dancing in Silks, the Breeders' Cup Sprint winner, has gone to the sidelines after two disappointing runs this year. In his absence, Bob Black Jack looked poised to assume the top spot in the California sprint division following his victory in last month's San Carlos Handicap. But he has been retired after injuring a suspensory ligament in a workout last week at Hollywood Park, a crushing setback to trainer James Kasparoff, who only has a handful of horses.

"For me, it's a pretty big blow," Kasparoff said. "He's the best horse I've been around."