HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Three-year olds are on everybody’s radar around these parts during the Gulfstream Park championship meet, although one that has been conspicuous by his absence thus far this winter is Octane, the undisputed leader of the local 2-year-old division in 2021.

Octane won three of his four starts at 2, including the final two legs of the Florida Sire Series, capping off his campaign with a popular, wire-to-wire victory in the 1 1/16-mile In Reality Stakes on Sept. 25 for which he received a 92 Beyer Speed Figure.

Echo Zulu, the sure champion 2-year-old filly of 2021, posted her first timed workout of 2022 on Tuesday at Fair Grounds, breezing an easy three furlongs in 39.80 seconds.

Echo Zulu completed a perfect four-start campaign that included three Grade 1 wins with an easy victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 5. Following a winter break, she arrived at Fair Grounds in late December, trainer Steve Asmussen taking his time before allowing the filly to breeze.

Coming to New Orleans by way of Parx Racing and Tampa Bay Downs is not a path much traveled, but that is how the 3-year-old filly Divine Huntress is expected to get to Fair Grounds for the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Feb. 19.

Divine Huntress, pending a weekend workout at Tampa Bay, will make her stakes debut in the Grade 2, $300,000 Rachel Alexandra, trainer Graham Motion said Wednesday, and the filly looks like a player.

Los Alamitos will not race on Saturday and Sunday this weekend, continuing a years-long trend of not racing on Super Bowl weekend.

In a statement released last weekend, the track said maintenance will be conducted on the track after the conclusion of training on Saturday and it will reopen on Feb. 17.

The absence of live racing will give the track a chance to rest its horse population. Through Sunday, fields averaged 6.03 runners per race since the beginning of the meeting on Dec. 26. The track had run 118 races in that span.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While Carlos Martin had to say goodbye to Bold Journey, a good-looking 3-year-old colt now in the Bill Mott barn, he may have a promising 3-year-old filly in Diamond Collector to help fill the void.

On Sunday, Diamond Collector won a seven-furlong maiden race by 4 1/2 lengths. She had finished second in her first two starts. Martin said he would ultimately like to stretch the filly out in distance.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – On multiple fronts, Adam Wachtel and his partners appeared to have made a shrewd purchase when they bought the New York-bred colt Bold Journey shortly after his second-place finish on debut last November.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Michael Yates sends out favored Alecka Star in an allowance race Friday at Gulfstream. At least he won’t have to deal with any horses from trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn in that race.

The Pletcher stable dealt Yates’s top 3-year-old prospect Dean Delivers a half-length defeat here last Saturday in the Grade 3 Swale with My Prankster. Four weeks earlier, Pletcher’s undefeated Dean’s List bested Dean Delivers by a neck.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Mark Casse sent out Flameaway to lower the stakes mark four years ago in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. The Hall of Fame trainer wouldn’t mind having one of his three runners in Saturday’s running of the Davis become similarly successful.

Flameaway won more than $900,000 and five stakes from 18 starts. Perhaps his most memorable accomplishment was his 2018 Davis triumph when he sped 1 1/16 miles in a stakes record 1:42.44.

Emerald Downs has announced the hiring of Bill Downes as track announcer for its 2022 live racing season, which begins May 15.

Downes succeeds Tom Harris, who recently stepped down to spend more time with his family.

A Chicago native, Downes brings extensive announcing experience to Emerald Downs. He served as Indiana Grand track announcer from 2013 to 2021, and before that called races at Ellis Park, Beulah Park, Presque Isle Downs, and River Downs. He also was back-up announcer at Churchill Downs.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The cross-country journal filled up this week with notes and opinions from Meydan to Golden Gate Fields to Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita.

Buick on a ‘Hot Rod’