Plans are to be determined for Team Merchants, who was a six-length winner of the $100,000 Bill Thomas Memorial on the Sunland Park Derby undercard last Sunday. He set a quick pace before winning the 6 1/2-furlong race in hand in 1:14.12. Team Marchants earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 92.

“He’s a cool horse,” trainer Doug O’Neill said Tuesday. “I’m not really sure where he may end up, maybe on the undercard Derby week at Churchill Downs.”

Hannah Leahey, a 26-year-old apprentice jockey, who launched her career at Turf Paradise last month, will have her first mount at Santa Anita aboard Musical Gem in Sunday’s sixth race for $12,500 claimers.

Through Thursday, Leahey had won two races from nine mounts at Turf Paradise since March 9. In the last month, Leahey has been based at Turf Paradise during the week and at Santa Anita on weekends working as an exercise rider.

Dr. Schivel, third in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen Stakes for sprinters in Dubai on March 26, will be rested in coming weeks for an expected return to racing at the Del Mar summer meeting.

Trainer Mark Glatt said Friday that the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs on July 30 at Del Mar is a goal. The $400,000 Bing Crosby is the leading sprint race at the track’s summer meeting.

Dr. Schivel won the 2021 Bing Crosby and later was second by a nose in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar last November.

McLaren Vale, third in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes in February, will miss the Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby on April 9, leaving the highly regarded Messier as trainer Tim Yakteen’s lone starter in the $750,000 race.

Yakteen said Friday that McLaren Vale remains in training, but did not mention a race goal.

“We’re in a holding pattern,” Yakteen said. “We’ll see how he works.”

Trainer Gary Cross knew the competition would be steep in the $300,000 Sunland Park Oaks last Sunday, but the 80-year-old also knew Cleopatras Charge had reason to move forward off her fifth-place finish in the local prep, the Island Fashion.

It turns out Cleopatras Charge did not disappoint her trainer – at odds of 79-1.

The daughter of Will Take Charge owned by breeder Samuel F. Henderson was making her second start for Cross following the Island Fashion at a mile in February.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – 1/ST Racing, the owner of Gulfstream Park, announced Friday a $3 million investment to address issues with track’s turf course and timing system.

Renovations to the turf course will start June 13 and will take approximately 2 1/2 to three months to complete. In addition, a pop-up irrigation system will be installed to support the Tapeta track, and a zone system will be installed to support the turf course. 

STICKNEY, Ill. – The post-Arlington era in Chicago racing has arrived. The landscape looks pretty bleak.

Hawthorne Racecourse, Chicago’s lone surviving track for Thoroughbred or Standardbred racing, commences a 34-day spring meeting Saturday. Purse money actually is decent, but horses are in short supply to start the season and those that wintered in Chicago scarcely have trained.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Forbidden Kingdom will enter the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in top shape following a seven-furlong workout Thursday at Santa Anita that alleviates two potential concerns.

First of all, the Thursday workout renders irrelevant the missed workout two weeks ago due to a fever. As trainer Richard Mandella suggested, it was no big deal. Forever Kingdom has posted two solid works since recovering.

All-sources handle for the 2021-22 Aqueduct winter meet was $358,836,940, a 2.5 percent increase over the 2020-21 meet, the New York Racing Association announced Friday.

There were 50 cards and 438 races run at the 2021-22 winter meet, which ran from Dec. 9, 2021 to March 27. A total of 56 cards had been scheduled, but six were lost due to bad weather. In 2020-21, there were 466 races run over 52 cards. Average field size for the ‘21-22 meet was 7.48 horses per race, compared to 7.42 in ‘20-21.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Christophe Clement will be welcoming back one graded stakes winner while getting ready to say goodbye to another when he sends out Gufo in the Grade 2, $200,000 Pan American Stakes and Beautiful Lover in the Grade 3, $150,000 Orchid Stakes on Saturday’s 10-stakes Florida Derby Day program at Gulfstream.