Whistle Stop Cafe, unbeaten in six starts, was honored as the 2020 Quarter Horse World Champion, the breed’s equivalent of Horse of the Year, in a ceremony at the Heritage Place sales pavilion in Oklahoma City on Thursday.

Owned by Whitmire Ranch and trained by Blane Wood, Whistle Stop Cafe was also named overall champion 2-year-old and champion 2-year-old filly. Whistle Stop Cafe’s season was highlighted by wins in the Rainbow and All American futurities at Ruidoso Downs in July and September. Whistle Stop Cafe earned $1,974,986 in 2020, which led the breed.

Trainer Kenneth Roberts Sr. has gone Thoroughbred.

Well, not exactly.

The champion Quarter Horse trainer has a division of 13 Thoroughbreds stabled at Delta Downs in Vinton, La., but he’s still fully active with Quarter Horses.

“I’m running a few Thoroughbreds at Delta,” Roberts said. “I kind of enjoy it. To me, they’re just a challenge to do it, and I’m kind of really getting involved. But I love my Quarter Horses, and I’m not going to stop with my Quarter Horses.”

Roberts said his brother inspired him to run some Thoroughbreds.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mrs. Orb did not reach her reserve at the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale earlier this week and she is expected to return to the races later this year, trainer and part-owner Mike Miceli said Thursday.

Mrs. Orb, who won the La Verdad Stakes on Jan. 3 at Aqueduct, was sent to a farm in Ocala, Fla., after going through the sales ring in Kentucky and will likely return to Miceli’s barn in March.

“We’ll give her a little time off and hopefully be ready to roll in April,” Miceli said.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Brooklyn Strong, the Grade 2 Remsen winner, will miss the Grade 3 Withers Stakes on Feb. 6 at Aqueduct after getting sick and missing some training time, trainer and part-owner Daniel Velazquez said Thursday.

“He’s going to miss the Withers,” Velazquez said. “His blood count was off and we had to give him a little time. I could run in the Withers, but I wouldn’t feel ready for the Withers.”

:: Click to learn about our DRF's Free Past Performance program.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Miss Marissa, the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan winner, breezed four furlongs in 47.40 seconds Wednesday morning over the Belmont Park training track, the fastest of 30 works at the distance. She is preparing for a start in Sunday’s $100,000 Ladies Handicap at Aqueduct.

The Black-Eyed Susan capped a three-race winning streak for Miss Marissa. That streak ended when she finished sixth in the Grade 3 Comely on Nov. 27 at Aqueduct.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – On Jan. 7, trainer Wayne Potts returned to work after being out two weeks due to a bad case of COVID-19. Two days later, he was back in the winner’s circle at Aqueduct, winning his fifth race of the winter meet.

It was not the first time recently Potts had rebounded from adversity.

:: Want to get your Past Performances for free? Click to learn more.

The five-race series of stakes for California-breds at Santa Anita on Saturday drew 22 stakes winners, including seven in the $200,000 Unusual Heat Turf Classic at 1 1/8 miles for older horses.

There was a remote chance the number of stakes winners entered could increase as fields were being finalized late Wednesday morning.

The 10-race program is scheduled to start at noon Pacific. There are four stakes winners in the $200,000 California Cup Derby for 3-year-olds at 1 1/ 16 miles, a race won in 2014 by eventual Horse of the Year California Chrome.

Purses at California tracks will rise through next year as part of a recent agreement finalized by the racetracks, the Thoroughbred Owners of California, and the account-wagering firm TVG.

In an announcement Wednesday, the organizations said purses will grow by as much as $15 million in 2021 and 2022. The benefits are already being felt with a 10 percent increase in overnight purses at the current Santa Anita meeting, which began Dec. 26.

Serengeti Empress was right up with the best horses Tom Amoss has trained and is the best horse Joel Politi has owned, but her last start for those connections came in November, when she was second in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

Wells Bayou came out of relative obscurity to finish second in the Southwest Stakes last February at Oaklawn Park, after which he came to Fair Grounds and wired the Louisiana Derby. He set a fast pace and faded to fifth in a division of the Arkansas Derby on May 2 and hasn’t started since, his 3-year-old season curtailed by cannon-bone bruising.

Wells Bayou has been tuning up at Oaklawn for his 4-year-old debut, which comes Saturday at Fair Grounds in the Louisiana Stakes.