It was a pretty big deal back on Jan. 12 at Fair Grounds when Pyro posted his first official workout since returning to training following his second-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. A week before that 51.80-second tune-up, Pyro had gone a half-mile in a time too slow to make the work tab, and his final work this year at Fair Grounds, done on Monday, was scarcely any faster. Pyro was timed in a pedestrian 53.20 seconds in his first breeze since winning the Louisiana Derby. Suffice it to say, the pro-tem leader of the 3-year-old division was not asked for his best.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Michael Matz has left the door open to the possibility that Visionaire, winner of the Gotham Stakes earlier this month, could have his final Kentucky Derby prep in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 29.

Visionaire, an impressive allowance winner here earlier in the meet, rallied from last to catch Texas Wildcatter on the wire to capture the Grade 3 Gotham at Aqueduct on March 8.

Nothing says Racecar Rhapsody has to win the Lane's End Stakes, the Turfway Park showcase that will be run Saturday for the 37th time. But if symbolism carries any weight, nothing would be more fitting.

STICKNEY, Ill. - When My Best Pal Red starts in the featured seventh race on Thursday at Hawthorne, he will be trainer Wayne Catalano's second Chicago starter of the season. There is good reason to believe that Catalano and owner Frank Calabrese will send out a few more horses in the coming months.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Necessity being the mother of invention, Bay Meadows clerk of scales Paul Nicolo found an innovative way to handle a large number of claims in Sunday's first leg of the Triple Play Series, a three-race series that offers inflated purses for claiming horses.

Pimlico Racecourse has reinstated the Grade 1 Pimlico Special to its stakes schedule after a one-year hiatus, but the race’s purse has been cut from $500,000 to $250,000, the track announced on Tuesday.

The Special will be run this year on Friday, May 16, the day before the second leg of the Triple Crown, the $1 million Preakness Stakes. Also May 16, Pimlico will card the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes and four other stakes races.

ARCADIA, Calif. – A pick six carryover of $699,574 will be up for grabs when racing resumes Thursday at Santa Anita.

Bettors wagered nearly $1 million into Monday’s pick six, chasing a carryover of $169,781. But for the second straight day, the wager proved elusive. The pick six sequence included only one winning favorite (El Falcon returned $5 in race 6); payoffs in the five other legs ranged from $9.40 to $24.

Korbyn Gold swooped past a pair of front-runners nearing the quarter pole and went on to an 8 1/4-length triumph Monday in the inaugural running of the $50,000 St. Patrick's Day Handicap at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

Owned by the Scarlet Stable and trained by Mike Maker, Korbyn Gold returned $10.80 as third choice in a field of eight older horses. Victor Lebron was aboard.

Ohio's horsemen and the owner of Thistledown racetrack near Cleveland have reached an agreement that will keep the track open for a 122-day meet in 2008, according to the executive director of the Ohio Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association.

The agreement with the track's owner, Magna Entertainment Corp., will provide for live racing on a Thursday-through-Monday schedule from May 1 to Sept. 8, according to the horsemen's group's executive director, Dave Basler. The meet will go to a four-day per week schedule from then until Oct. 25.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Dream Rush will miss Saturday's Grade 2 Distaff Handicap at Aqueduct after suffering a minor injury to a hind leg, trainer Rick Violette said Monday.

Violette said he was forced to miss a Sunday workout with Dream Rush after detecting filling and some heat in a hind leg, possibly incurred from Dream Rush kicking a wall in her stall at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida. Violette said X-rays and other tests proved negative for any fractures and that it's simply a matter of "bad timing.''