With the brilliant Gamine in the midst of a brief rest, trainer Bob Baffert is reverting to his deep roster for the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.

Baffert said Sunday that he plans to have as many as four runners in the $300,000 race at seven furlongs – Golden Principal, Himiko, Merneith and Provocation.

Merneith, the winner of the Fort Springs Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs at Keeneland on Nov. 7, worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Sunday, the quickest of 73 recorded works at the distance.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jose Lezcano finished the Aqueduct fall meet with six consecutive multiple-win days to finish second to Kendrick Carmouche in the standings.

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Thursday, he got off to a terrific start at the Aqueduct winter meet, booting home four winners from six mounts. That gave him 17 winners from 51 mounts over seven cards.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Honor Way, winner of last Sunday’s Garland of Roses Stakes, will point to the $100,000 Interborough Stakes on Jan. 18, trainer Charlton Baker said.

Though Honor Way will be 7 in 2021, Baker said the mare is doing too well to stop on her right now.

“She came out of the race great, she’s doing good,” Baker said.

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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Malibu Star’s maiden victory on Thursday at Aqueduct was good for trainer Kelly Breen on multiple counts.

First, the 3-year-old son of Giant’s Causeway won the one-mile race by a convincing 2 1/4 lengths and earned a 91 Beyer Speed Figure in his second start off a year layoff, portending good things to come. Second, when Malibu Star finished second in his previous start, he did so to the Breen-trained Full Impact, who came back to win his first-level allowance condition on Nov. 13.

Smooth Like Strait, a four-time stakes winner in the last 13 months, will have his final start of 2020 in the Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile for 3-year-olds on turf at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.

Trainer Michael McCarthy confirmed the plans after Smooth Like Strait worked a half-mile in 48 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday, the fastest of 58 works at the distance.

“I was very pleased with what I saw,” McCarthy said.

Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, who has not ridden since Nov. 29, said on Friday that he expects to emerge from a 14-day quarantine forced by a recent coronavirus positive in time to ride Petruchio in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 19.

Smith tested positive in advance of scheduled mounts at Los Alamitos last weekend, the initial days of the track’s current three-week Los Angeles County Fair meeting.

Smith said he hopes to be cleared to ride the $200,000 Los Alamitos Futurity. The quarantine period ends on Thursday, he said.

Indiana Grand in Shelbyville, Ind., will race next year on the weekly schedule it adopted this year to take advantage of lack of competition in the simulcast market during the coronavirus pandemic.

The track will run largely on a Monday-through-Thursday schedule, while also holding eight live race cards on Saturday, during a meet running from April 13 to Nov. 4, for a total of 120 live Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing dates. The schedule was approved by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission on Thursday.

Trainer Jeff Engler has finally found a home, and he couldn’t be much happier about it.

“We’ve been welcomed here in Florida with open arms,” Engler said this week by phone from Boynton Beach, where he moved his stable for the first time in the spring. “It’s been refreshing. Everybody has been really good to us.”

On Sunday at Los Alamitos, Proud Emma won the Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes, a $100,000 race at 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares. She is scheduled to return in a race with similar conditions and twice the prize money in the Grade 3 La Canada Stakes on Jan. 9 at Santa Anita.

“The timing is good,” trainer Peter Miller said.

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Kentucky Downs officials announced Thursday that a sizable portion of the 1 5/16-mile turf course has undergone a major renovation and is expected to be fully ready for the six-day meet in September 2021.

New sod has been laid from the six-furlong pole to the eighth pole, extending 63 feet in width around the sweeping far turn and into the homestretch. The newly laid portions include a perennial trouble spot near the three-eighths pole.