By Brad Cox’s standards, the last two weeks have been slow, with three winners from 28 runners. On Preakness weekend at Pimlico, Cox won two, including the Black-Eyed Susan with Margie’s Intention, but back on home grounds at Churchill Downs, Cox sent out six and won none during the last racing week.

But as May pushes toward June, expect Cox to heat up in Kentucky and New York. Cox’s barn is absolutely loaded with older dirt-route horses, to the extent that Cox nominated 10 of them to the May 31 Blame Stakes, a prep for the $1 million Stephen Foster on June 28.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The undefeated filly Cavalieri, a notable absentee from the nominations for Sunday’s Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes at Santa Anita, will not race until the Del Mar summer meeting, according to trainer Bob Baffert.

Cavalieri, who won the Grade 1 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares at Santa Anita on March 8 in her last start, has not had a published workout since mid-April.

“I’m going to wait for Del Mar,” Baffert said on Sunday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Last May, on the Memorial Day program at Santa Anita, jockey Umberto Rispoli won two Grade 1 races on the same program for the first time in his career with Anisette in the Gamely Stakes and Johannes in the Shoemaker Mile.

The same milestone is within reach on Monday for Rispoli, who has been at the center of the racing world after his dramatic win aboard Journalism in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. The Preakness was the first American classic victory for the 36-year-old Rispoli, a native of Italy who has ridden in the United States since late 2019.

May Day Ready, the Grade 2 Jessamine winner who finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, will make her 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2, $300,000 Wonder Again Stakes at Saratoga on June 7, trainer Joe Lee said Friday.

Lee had been pointing May Day Ready to the Edgewood Stakes at Churchill on May 2, but the filly came into season and Lee could not prepare her for a race like he wanted.

May Day Ready spent the winter at Fair Grounds and then moved to Keeneland, where she remains.

Bless the Broken, third to Good Cheer in the Kentucky Oaks, is being pointed to a rematch with that undefeated filly in the Grade 1, $500,000 Acorn on June 6 at Saratoga, trainer Will Walden said.

Bless the Broken, winner of the Bourbonette Oaks, had a bit of a wide trip in the Oaks. She finished 3 1/2 lengths behind Good Cheer and 1 1/4 lengths behind runner-up Drexel Hill, who rallied inside of Bless the Broken in the stretch.