Express Train, winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap and two other graded stakes at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, is expected to have his next start in the Grade 2 Californian Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on April 30.

Friday, Express Train worked five furlongs in 1:02.60, his second workout since a win in the Big Cap at 1 1/4 miles on March 5.

“Today was just about him stretching a little bit and using his stride,” trainer John Shirreffs said. “I wasn’t looking for anything more than range of motion.”

Luck, the winner of the Grade 3 Robert Frankel Stakes on turf in January, was recently retired and sent to Kentucky, trainer Richard Baltas said.

No decision has been made on whom she will be bred to, according to bloodstock agent Alex Solis II, who advises owners Larry, Nancy, and Jaime Roth.

The decision to retire the 5-year-old Luck was made earlier this month, Baltas said.

“She left about a week ago,” Baltas said. “She did well and she has a very big pedigree. She’s pretty good. It was really hard for me to take, but she should be a valuable broodmare.”

Forbidden Kingdom, unbeaten in two graded stakes this year, was pronounced on schedule for the Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby on April 9 on Friday, a day after working six furlongs in 1:14 at Santa Anita.

The workout was the first for Forbidden Kingdom since a win in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on March 5. Forbidden Kingdom missed a workout last week because of an elevated temperature.

“I think I’m in good shape,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “I don’t think I lost anything.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The local riding colony will be bolstered with the announcement that Junior Alvarado plans to stay in South Florida at the end of the meet and ride here year round.

Alvarado, a regular on the New York circuit the past 10 years, has had a good deal of success in his first regular appearance during the Championship meet. He notched his 48th win of the meet aboard Kodama in Thursday’s fourth race to remain firmly entrenched in sixth place in the standings this winter.

NEW ORLEANS – It has been a year since Mystic Guide won the Dubai World Cup, and if it seems like it’s been a year since you last saw him, you wouldn’t be far wrong. Mystic Guide’s lone race since then was a second-place finish in the Grade 2 Suburban at Belmont Park July 3. He was in training here at Fair Grounds earlier this meet, but trainer Mike Stidham was dissatisfied with the way he was going after a pair of workouts, and sent him to Kentucky for a thorough evaluation by noted veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage.

NEW ORLEANS – Foot problems have been the bugaboo with Shared Sense throughout his career, but he certainly put his best foot forward here at Fair Grounds on Thursday, setting a track record for 1 1/16 miles while recording a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 103.

Shared Sense, 5, won a pair of Grade 3 derbies – in Indiana and Oklahoma – at age 3, but had just one win in six starts over 18 months since his Oklahoma Derby victory, and was coming off an allowance race at Oaklawn in which he was pulled up by jockey Joel Rosario.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – It’s starting to feel like Racing Festival of the South time at Oaklawn.

Temperatures are warming, tent structures are in place in the infield, and top 3-year-olds like Secret Oath are putting in their final works for the Arkansas Derby.

Secret Oath, who will be taking on colts for the first time in the Grade 1, $1.25 million race next Saturday, was the first worker on a clear Friday morning with temperatures in the 40s. She breezed five furlongs by herself in 1:01.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Hockey great Mark Messier famously guaranteed a key playoff win for his New York Rangers in 1994, a bold prediction that came true after he scored a hat trick to ice the victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Four equine fatalities at Los Alamitos in the last two weeks has led to several immediate policy changes at the track’s evening meeting for Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds.

Mucho Unusual, the winner of the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes in 2020 and four other stakes, has been retired and will be bred to American Pharoah in coming days, owner and breeder George Krikorian said on Thursday.

Mucho Unusual was flown from California to Kentucky earlier this week. Her retirement was announced by trainer Tim Yakteen in a Twitter message on Thursday.