HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – For just the third time at the championship meet, which began Dec. 2, ontrack spectators will be permitted when the Florida Derby is run March 27. Tickets are on sale through the track website on a limited basis, just as they were for the Jan. 23 Pegasus and Feb. 27 Fountain of Youth. Strict pandemic-related protocols apply.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Chantal Sutherland is switching circuits again. The 45-year-old jockey has been exercising horses this winter in Florida and now has decided to resume riding races, starting with the March 28 Florida Cup card at Tampa Bay Downs and into the Gulfstream Park spring-summer meet, which runs April 1 to Sept. 26.

Former jockey John Raymond Rettele, who rode as John O. Rettele, died at age 70 on March 10 in Tecumseh, Neb.

Rettele rode for 23 years, according to his daughter Jamie, before retiring in 1993. From 1976 through 1993, the period for which statistics are available, Rettele won 1,174 races, primarily in Nebraska and at Fairmount Park in Southern Illinois.

Del Mar is planning on allowing fans, at a capacity still to be determined, when its summer meeting opens on July 16, the track said in a release on Tuesday.

Citing encouraging trends in public-health data, including vaccination rates, and a statewide edict that on April 1 will allow for outdoor sports venues to have fans in some capacity – coinciding with the opening of baseball season – the expectation is that fans will be allowed at Del Mar after being barred from the facility last summer and fall owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Excellent Timing rewarded the restraint his connections showed by not rushing him onto the Triple Crown trail with a 6 3/4-length victory in Sunday’s $100,000 Damon Runyon Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds.

Now his high-profile owners, led by Michael Dubb, and trainer Chad Brown will have decisions to make on how to proceed with the promising son of Not This Time, who is now 2 for 3.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Parx Racing-based Danny Velazquez, trainer of Triple Crown hopeful Brooklyn Strong, was released from a Bucks County, Pa., hospital Sunday night after suffering injuries as the result of a freak accident Saturday morning at Parx.

Velazquez said he was aboard his stable pony jogging a horse clockwise, or the opposite way of regular training, when a horse trained by Richard Vega unseated its rider and ran into Velazquez and his pony.

NEW ORLEANS – The best-looking horse seen working Monday at Fair Grounds was, appropriately, the highest-profile horse seen working during a quiet training session in balmy New Orleans.

Midnight Bourbon, trying to punch his ticket to the Kentucky Derby when he starts Saturday in the $1 million Louisiana Derby, breezed an easy half-mile in 49.20 seconds. The colt looked good when he won the Lecomte Stakes in January and looks even better now.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Greatest Honour isn’t the only promising 3-year-old in Shug McGaughey’s arsenal. On Saturday, the Hall of Fame horseman sent out Bears Watching to an easy 7 3/4-length maiden win going seven furlongs. He received an 83 Beyer Speed Figure while winning geared down under jockey Jose Ortiz.

Bears Watching, a half-brother to Code of Honor, finished third, a half-length in front of Collaborate, when both made their career debuts Feb. 6.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gulfstream Park officials have released the stakes schedule for the upcoming spring-summer meet with $3.5 million in purses spread among 34 races.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Shedaresthedevil and Letruska put on a show together when finishing a head apart in the Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri on Saturday at Oaklawn. Now, they are headed in separate directions.

Shedaresthedevil, the 2020 Kentucky Oaks heroine who was winning her seasonal debut in the Azeri, is scheduled to return to Churchill Downs for that track’s Grade 1, $500,000 La Troienne on April 30, trainer Brad Cox said Sunday.