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.”

Next Shares blanked in 2020, losing all seven starts in lucrative stakes. There were three second- or third-place finishes in graded stakes during that season, a reflection Next Shares was just a cut below the best runners.

So far this year, Next Shares is winless in graded stakes at Santa Anita and Gulfstream Park.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Rudy Rodriguez resisted the temptation of entering Eagle Orb in Saturday’s Grade 3 Gotham Stakes and is pointing the Jerome Stakes runner-up to the $100,000 Damon Runyon Stakes for New York-breds on March 14.

“Hopefully, we can win a race with him and build his confidence a little bit and take it from there,” Rodriguez said.

Eagle Orb attempted two turns in the Withers and finished fifth, 10 1/4 lengths behind Risk Taking.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Brooklyn Strong, unraced since winning the Grade 2 Remsen at Aqueduct on Dec. 5, is attempting to train up to the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial, trainer Danny Velazquez said this week.

Brooklyn Strong got sick and then missed significant training time due to poor track conditions at Parx, where he is based. Brooklyn Strong returned to the work tab on Feb. 26 with a three-furlong move in 36.89 seconds and was scheduled to work again over the weekend.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mind Control won two stakes at Aqueduct at age 3 and two more here at 4. So, it makes perfect sense that his connections are targeting Aqueduct for Mind Control’s 5-year-old debut.

Though based in South Florida for the winter, Mind Control is preparing for the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap here April 3. It will be Mind Control’s first start since he finished third in the Mr. Prospector Handicap on Dec. 19 at Gulfstream Park.

“He runs well fresh, he’s 4 for 5 at Aqueduct, which is probably his favorite track,” trainer Gregg Sacco said Friday.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gulfstream Park officials are on the verge of finalizing plans to install a Tapeta racetrack on what is now the outer section of the turf course, giving the track the option to run races over three different surfaces.

Animal-rights protesters, some chained together on the racetrack, disrupted racing and COVID-19 vaccinations on Thursday at Golden Gate Fields.

A group called Direct Action Everywhere set up pickets around the track, and four members chained themselves together and lay down on the track near the five-sixteenths pole at noon, about 45 minutes before the first race. The people on the track also set off purple smoke flares, while another group of protesters waved signs near the entrance that said, “Shut Down Golden Gate Fields.”

It might be the wrong surface, but it’s the right time for Silver Dust to start his 7-year-old season. He goes back to the turf in the featured eighth race Sunday at Fair Grounds.

Silver Dust, who won the Grade 3 Mineshaft Stakes last winter at Fair Grounds and has banked nearly $900,000 in purse earnings, last was seen finishing a disappointing 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. He got a winter break and hit the work tab on Jan. 9 at Fair Grounds, but trainer Bret Calhoun has struggled to find a suitable spot for Silver Dust.

Yaupon, last seen finishing eighth as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, will start his 2021 season in the Group 1, $1.5 million Dubai Golden Shaheen on March 27 at Meydan Racecourse, trainer Steve Asmussen said Thursday.

When soon-to-be Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher won his first and only Muniz Memorial Stakes, the year was 2010 and the race was called the Mervin Muniz Handicap. The winner was Blues Street, who had hit the hottest streak of his career, which in the end stamped him more as a solid listed-stakes or Grade 3-type middle-distance turf horse.