Since Lake Avenue seems to flourish at Aqueduct, trainer Bill Mott is likely to give the royally bred 4-year-old filly one more start here this spring, perhaps in the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff Handicap on April 2.

“If she would fit in that race there, I would probably prefer that,” Mott said Sunday from Florida.

Lake Avenue ran her record at Aqueduct to 3 for 4 with a convincing 6 3/4-length score in Saturday’s $125,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational. At age 2, Lake Avenue won a maiden race and the Grade 2 Demoiselle at Aqueduct.

Trainer Rob Atras is being realistic about his sprinter Chateau, who earned a 100 Beyer Speed figure for his 3 1/2-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap.

That most likely means keeping Chateau in races run at six furlongs and not looking to run in a race like the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter going seven furlongs here April 3.

“I don’t know if this horse wants to go seven-eighths,” Atras said Sunday morning. “You nominate to the race, take a look at it, but you probably consider other options as well.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Search Results passed a class test by winning Saturday’s $250,000 Busher Invitational Stakes at Aqueduct. Next month, she’ll get tested for distance when she attempts 1 1/8 miles for the first time in the Grade 3, $250,000 Gazelle Stakes on April 3.

Search Results, whose only previous start was a six-furlong maiden win at Gulfstream on Jan. 3, was able to outfinish Miss Brazil to win the one-mile Busher by a half-length. It was nearly six lengths back to The Grass Is Blue in third.

Search Results ran a mile in 1:39.75 and earned an 84 Beyer Speed Figure.

Three of the sharper dirt-sprint maiden winners of the Fair Grounds season will square off in the featured sixth race Thursday. He’s in Charge, Shackleford Strong, and Blameworthy are among seven 3-year-olds entered in a six-furlong, non-winners-of-two allowance race.

Defeater, who was being aimed at the Louisiana Derby following a strong second-place finish in a Feb. 13 allowance race at Fair Grounds, is out of training with what trainer Tom Amoss described as “bone weakness.”

While Essential Quality, the leading 3-year-old in trainer Brad Cox's barn, had a quieter weekend after racing Feb. 27 in the Southwest, Mandaloun, the likely favorite March 20 in the Louisiana Derby, and Caddo River, who is aimed at the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn, had serious workouts on March 6.

Trainer Brad Cox confirmed Sunday what was widely expected – that champion Essential Quality would have his final Kentucky Derby prep and second start of his 3-year-old season on April 3 at Keeneland in the Blue Grass Stakes.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - While Gotham Stakes winner Weyburn will most certainly be nominated to the Triple Crown and will likely make his next start in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 3, trainer Jimmy Jerkens stopped short of saying he’s pointing the horse to the Kentucky Derby.

Jerkens mentioned the Belmont Stakes on June 5 as a Triple Crown race he might prefer for Weyburn, a son of Pioneerof the Nile.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Trainer Mark Casse said Helium emerged in good order from his 15-1 victory Saturday in the Tampa Bay Derby and that the Ironicus colt is unlikely to race again prior to the May 1 Kentucky Derby.

Helium, making his first start in nearly five months and just his third overall, fended off a sustained run from Hidden Stash in remaining unbeaten for DJ Stable and Casse in the annual Tampa signature event.

Astute, the easy winner of the Dezi Arnaz Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Del Mar in November, faces an uncertain short-term schedule after emerging from a recent workout “stiff and sore,” trainer Richard Mandella said Friday.

Astute worked six furlongs in a rapid 1:11.60 on Feb. 28 at Santa Anita, but has not been in training this week, Mandella said.

“She had another little setback,” he said. “It’s no big deal. We had to back off for a week. We’re not going anywhere for a little while. We’re in limbo now.”