OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With Laurel Park and the New York Racing Association running essentially the same stakes this coming weekend, there figures to be a lot of hemming and hawing among horsemen as to where to run.

Case in point is Witty, winner of the Pennsylvania Nursery Stakes for Pennsylvania-breds at Parx in December. He is one of eight 3-year-olds nominated to both Saturday’s $100,000 Spectacular Bid Stakes at Laurel and Sunday’s $100,000 Jimmy Winkfield at Aqueduct. Both races are at seven furlongs.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Glass Ceiling likely earned a spot in the Grade 3, $250,000 Barbara Fritchie Stakes at Laurel Park on Feb. 19 by virtue of her decisive 5 1/4-length allowance victory at Aqueduct on Sunday.

Glass Ceiling rallied three wide in the lane under Dylan Davis and drew clear for the authoritative score, her third victory in her last four starts. Glass Ceiling ran seven furlongs in 1:22.25 and earned a 94 Beyer Speed Figure. Trainer Charlton Baker said Monday that the Fritchie, at seven furlongs, is “definitely the plan.”

Mandaloun and Midnight Bourbon, the one-two finishers in the Louisiana Stakes on Saturday, both appeared Sunday to have come out of the race in good physical condition and remain on track to start Feb. 26 in the $20 million Saudi Cup.  

NEW ORLEANS – Less than one length separated the top three finishers in Saturday’s Lecomte Stakes, and the trio could meet again Feb. 22 at Fair Grounds in the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes.  

ARCADIA, Calif. - Barraza gave Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux his first stakes win of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting with an easy victory in Saturday’s $77,900 Clockers' Corner Stakes for turf sprinters.

Desormeaux, 51, will be after a much bigger prize next Saturday when he rides at Gulfstream Park for the first time since 2014 on Stilleto Boy in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup.

Jockey Mychel Sanchez, who has won more than 100 races a year since 2017, was suspended by Pennsylvania regulators on Thursday for 60 days for violating a rule that prohibits jockeys from betting on any horses but their own mounts in a race, according to racing regulators.

Although officials for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Thoroughbred Horse Racing did not respond to phone calls on Friday, the executive director of the Maryland Racing Commission said on Friday that Sanchez had been removed from his three mounts on Friday at Laurel Park due to the ruling.

Super Stock, the winner of last year’s Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn, is on pace to launch his 4-year-old season Feb. 12 in the Grade 3, $600,000 Razorback, said trainer Steve Asmussen.

The Razorback will be run over 1 1/16 miles. Super Stock won the Zia Park Derby at the distance in November.

The earner of $1.1 million races for Erv Woolsey and Asmussen’s parents, Keith and Marilyn Asmussen.

“He’s been more than a gift,” said Steve Asmussen.

The Sunland Park-based apprentice jockey Erick Medellin is scheduled to join the Oaklawn Park riding colony in early February, according to his agent, Dominic Rivera. Bill Castle will have Medellin’s book at Oaklawn, said Rivera.

Medellin is the 20-year-old son of jockey Alejandro Medellin. The older Medellin is a winner of more than 1,500 races with mount earnings in excess of $30 million, according to records from Daily Racing Form.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – When the $100,000 Interborough Stakes didn’t have enough entries to be run Jan. 15, it left the connections of Glass Ceiling and Aunt Kat searching for an alternate spot. They found one in a multi-conditioned allowance going seven furlongs Sunday at Aqueduct. The purse is $88,000.

Glass Ceiling is coming off a victory under Dylan Davis in the Garland of Roses Stakes at Aqueduct on Dec. 11. That was race at six furlongs. Trainer Charlton Baker likes her at this seven-furlong distance.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Hagler, fifth in the one-mile Jerome Stakes on New Year’s Day, will shorten up to seven furlongs and get blinkers for the $100,000 Jimmy Winkfield on Jan. 30, trainer Rudy Rodriguez said Friday.

Prior to his Jerome defeat, Hagler won an allowance race going seven furlongs at Aqueduct. Rodriguez felt that Hagler didn’t pay full attention in the Jerome.