HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – When a 3-year-old filly named Comedic finished second as a 4-5 favorite in a five-furlong Tapeta race Jan. 8 at Gulfstream, she became the first-ever starter in Florida for Simon Callaghan, who has been training in Southern California since 2010.

“We sent her to Florida to see if she could break her maiden going five-eighths on the turf,” Callaghan explained by phone this week. “It’s the most speed-favoring kind of race there is at this time of year. We don’t have turf races that short here in California until Del Mar.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – They say that once you’ve run a horse in the Kentucky Derby, you want to do it every year. Vicki Oliver and Brian Klatsky wouldn’t disagree.

Oliver, now in her 24th year of training, and Klatsky – who with Brendan O’Brien and Braxton Lynch oversees the BBN Racing partnerships – are looking to go down the Derby trail again this year with a gelding named Trademark. In 2021, they were represented by the 14th-place finisher, Hidden Stash, in their first experience with a Derby runner.

David Carroll, the assistant who runs the day-to-day operations of trainer Mark Casse’s Fair Grounds barn, does not need to confer with the exercise rider to determine how Pappacap has been doing since arriving in New Orleans from Florida in the second half of December.

“I gallop him myself every day,” Carroll said. “He’s a pleasure to be around, really. He does everything very nice and easily. He can get a little bit warm, but that’s just him. If you see him getting warm in the post parade, I wouldn’t look at it negatively.”

The racing career of 2021 Dubai World Cup-winner Mystic Guide is on hold again, if not over.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Irad Ortiz Jr. could be sidelined three to four more weeks after initially being diagnosed with a small fracture in a knee this week, although it’s possible he could return sooner after seeking out a second medical opinion, according to Steve Rushing, agent for the jockey. 

Rushing said late Wednesday that the knee may only be contused, and not fractured, and Ortiz will be reevaluated Tuesday. 

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Dissatisfied with the way she has been training recently, the connections of unbeaten Classy Edition did not enter her Wednesday for Saturday’s $100,000 Franklin Square Stakes, creating a bit of a wide-open running of the 6 1/2-furlong race for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice went on a shopping spree last fall at Churchill Downs, claiming 10 horses for $462,500. Rice has run four of those horses back, with Charger winning a maiden special weight race at Parx on Jan. 4 and Flower Moon winning a maiden $40,000 claimer at Aqueduct last Sunday in her second start off the claim.

“We tried something new,” Rice said. “We’ll see how it works out.”

Laurel Park will hold live race cards on five of the next Thursdays and boost all overnight purses by 20 percent through February to make up for a raft of canceled race dates over the past two months, officials for Laurel and the track’s horsemen’s association said on Wednesday.

Lieutenant Dan, one of the top California-breds of 2021, is in the midst of a wintertime vacation designed to have the turf sprinter prepared for a stakes campaign in the second half of 2022.

Lieutenant Dan was second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar in November in his latest start, and the same race at Keeneland on Nov. 5 is a long-term goal, owner and breeder Nick Alexander said earlier this week.

A gelding, Lieutenant Dan has remained with trainer Steve Miyadi at Santa Anita in recent months, and is scheduled to resume training later this winter.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Smile Happy, a 3 1/4-length winner of the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs in late November, will continue breezing every Saturday at Gulfstream Park ahead of his 3-year-old debut in the Holy Bull as trainer Ken McPeek plots out a course for his Kentucky Derby hopefuls.

Smile Happy has breezed each of the last two Saturdays (Jan. 1 and 8) alongside Tiz the Bomb, with the latest being a half-mile team work in 48.80 seconds.

“They’ll be workmates at least the next few weeks,” said McPeek.