Tulane Tryst showed talent from his first start last spring at Fair Grounds. He hit a flat spot through the middle of his 3-year-old season in 2021 but looked the part of a future stakes horse Thursday.

Racing for the first time since he captured a first-level allowance race Nov. 20 at Churchill Downs, Tulane Tryst rated and rallied to a 7 1/4-length score in a second-level dirt-sprint allowance race. He clocked 1:09.77 for six furlongs on a surface that didn’t seem especially quick, and, when the figure becomes available, is sure to have earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure.

California-based trainer Doug O’Neill’s last trip to Fair Grounds was so satisfying he’s coming back for more fun.

Hot Rod Charlie won the Louisiana Derby last March, O’Neill’s first Fair Grounds runner in three years, and three days before Mardi Gras, O’Neill has live horses for the Risen Star and the Rachel Alexandra stakes.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Multiple graded stakes winning stablemates Envoutante and Crazy Beautiful took another step closer to their much anticipated 2022 debuts when they worked four furlongs in company in 48.75 here Friday morning for trainer Kenny McPeek. Both horses finished well within themselves while noses apart at the wire before galloping out in tandem in 1:02.18.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A field of 11 long-winded colts and geldings Sunday will contest Gulfstream’s main event carded at 1 1/2 miles on the turf, weather permitting, under first-level allowance conditions. The headliner offers a $61,000 purse and goes as the ninth event on an 11-race program with first post at noon.

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.