ARCADIA, Calif. – Two races into her American career, Excelerina is undefeated, but has yet to show her best effort.

That’s the point of view of trainer Phil D’Amato, who will test Excelerina in Saturday’s Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Santa Anita.

Excelerina was winless in three modest races in Ireland last year, but won a maiden special weight race by 2 1/2 lengths on Feb. 6 and an allowance race by 2 1/4 lengths on March 11. Flavien Prat rode Excelerina in those races, which were run at 1 1/8 miles.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Neither rain nor cold nor the gloomy end to the basketball season will prevent the Keeneland spring meet from opening this weekend to great enthusiasm here in the Bluegrass region and beyond.

“We all wish the forecast was better,” Gatewood Bell, now in his second year as vice president of racing at Keeneland, said early Monday, “but it won’t stop us from having a great start to the meet.”

ARCADIA, Calif. - Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella has at least one 3-year-old bound for Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.

On Saturday at Santa Anita, Sumter won his third consecutive start in the $100,000 Singletary Stakes at a mile on turf, which is likely to lead to a start in the Grade 2 American Turf Stakes at Churchill Downs on May 7.

Typically, the toughest decision an owner has to make the day after winning a race is where to run that horse next. In the case of Weyburn, the owners - Robert and Mark Krembil’s Chiefswood Stables - have to decide who will train the horse for his next start.

Weyburn won Saturday’s $100,000 Sir Shackleton in his first start for Brendan Walsh. The horse had made his first eight starts for Jimmy Jerkens, including a 46-1 upset of last year’s Grade 3 Gotham at Aqueduct. The owners sent Weyburn to Walsh for the winter because Jerkens was not sending horses to South Florida.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It has been 29 years since trainer Shug McGaughey won the Kentucky Oaks, and 19 years since he last had a runner in the prestigious race for 3-year-old fillies at Churchill Downs.

This year McGaughey will return to the Oaks with Kathleen O., who cemented her status as one of the top contenders with a 2 3/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks. That victory was her fourth in as many starts.

Trainers Sean McCarthy and Tim Yakteen will take control of horses trained by Bob Baffert when the Hall of Fame trainer begins a 90-day suspension Monday for a 2021 medication violation found in Kentucky Derby first-place finisher Medina Spirit, Santa Anita officials said Saturday.

McCarthy will care for a majority of the stable, while Yakteen will have a select group of candidates that are being prepared for the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 6 and 7.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Keepmeinmind, a graded stakes winner at 2 who ran in seven consecutive graded stakes last year at 3 without a win, has been moved from Robertino Diodoro to trainer Todd Pletcher.

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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – When Sonic Kitten rallied to win Friday’s first race, it clinched the Gulfstream Park winter meet title for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. It was his 54th win of the meet, 10 more than perennial leading trainer Todd Pletcher, who had runners in just nine races over the weekend.

Pletcher had won the last 18 titles. (Jorge Navarro won the 2018-19 meet, but had the title stripped after being indicted on drug charges.)

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jockey Jose Ortiz was a man on the move Friday morning.

At 7:45 a.m., Ortiz was at the Palm Meadows training center where he guided the champion mare Letruska through a five-furlong move in 1:00.50. Shortly before 9:30, Ortiz was at Gulfstream Park – about a 45-minute drive from Palm Meadows – to work First Captain a half-mile in 48.84 seconds.

Letruska is pointing to the Grade 1 Apple Blossom on April 23 at Oaklawn Park. First Captain is scheduled to make his next start in the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct next Saturday.

Mr Money Bags, who won the 10th stakes of his career in the $100,000 Spirit of Texas last weekend at Sam Houston Race Park, could stretch out around two turns for his next start, trainer Jaylan Clary said.

“We’re looking at a mile, possibly,” she said. “Nothing’s set in stone. We’re just kind of giving him a little down time. He’ll still be galloping. We just haven’t planned too far ahead.”