HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Todd Pletcher spent the holidays with family in Ocala but his imposing presence was felt here nonetheless with the Hall of Fame trainer capturing two of the three stakes decided at Gulfstream Park over Christmas weekend – the two-mile Allen Jerkens on Friday with Abaan and the Tropical Park Derby 48 hours later with the up-and-coming 3-year-old turf specialist Never Surprised.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The undefeated Flightline will have a limited campaign in 2022 expected to include the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile at Belmont Park in early June, trainer John Sadler said.

Making his third start on Sunday, Flightline won his stakes debut in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs at Santa Anita. Flightline took the lead shortly after the start and drew off by 11 1/2 lengths. Flightline ran seven furlongs in 1:21.37 and earned an astonishing Beyer Speed Figure of 118, the best of the year.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita has amended its racing schedule for the forthcoming weekend because of significant rain forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, cancelling racing on Thursday and shifting three stakes scheduled for Friday to the Saturday and Sunday programs.

Racing will be held Friday through Sunday.

Saturday, Santa Anita will run four stakes, including the Grade 3 Robert Frankel Stakes for fillies and mares on turf, which was originally scheduled for Friday.

Eduardo Inda, who was a longtime assistant for Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally during the glory days of John Henry and went on to train Eclipse Award winner Riboletta, died last week, his family reported to the Santa Anita publicity department. He was 78.

Inda, a native of Chile, was instrumental in the care of John Henry and also South American imports such as Bayakoa and Paseana, who won two Eclipse Awards each for McAnally.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Seven of the last 10 horses to finish first in the Kentucky Derby spent the bulk of their winter racing or training at Santa Anita, and this year’s crop of locally based Derby prospects offers similar possibilities, with a deep group underscored by uncertainty of the plans for some of the marquee names.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Express Train and Hot Rod Charlie both had strong years that with a little luck might even have been better, and both will seek to end 2021 on a high note when they face off Sunday at Santa Anita in the Grade 2, $200,000 San Antonio Stakes.

CYPRESS, Calif. - The riders of the second- through fourth-place finishers in the $2,009,825 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity on Dec. 12 have been fined or suspended for whip violations in the 400-yard Quarter Horse race.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Apprentice jockey Cesar Ortega has resumed exercising horses at Los Alamitos after suffering an injury to his pancreas in a seven-horse spill at Del Mar in August, according to his agent, Patty Sterling.

Sterling said at Santa Anita on Monday that Ortega does not have a timeline for a return to riding.

“He’s back on horses,” Sterling said. “He’s a ways off. It’s taken longer to recover.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Juan Hernandez has been named to ride Dr. Schivel in Sunday’s Grade 1 Runhappy Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita.

Trainer Mark Glatt said on Monday that a decision was reached over the weekend to employ Hernandez, who rode Dr. Schivel to a win in a maiden special weight race at Del Mar in August 2020 when the colt was trained by Luis Mendez.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Although they won’t turn 3 for another week, a trio of locally based juveniles are already being pointed to the traditional Kentucky Derby preps to be decided here this winter, a group that includes the Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained pair of Make It Big and White Abarrio along with trainer Dale Romans’s Giant Game, who capped his 2-year-old campaign with a third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.