Veteran Grade 1 winner Gift Box, who began the year among the top handicap horses in California before a wrenched ankle knocked him out of training, will target an autumn stakes race for his first start of 2020.

Plans call for Gift Box to return in the Grade 1 Awesome Again in the fall at Santa Anita, which will determine if the 7-year-old is Breeders’ Cup-worthy. Gift Box won the 2019 Santa Anita Handicap and finished second in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita. He has not started since winning the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes on Dec. 28.

Arlington International Racecourse is open to running an abbreviated 2020 race meet without spectators, sources say, a change from the suburban Chicago track’s previously stated position that spectator-free racing couldn’t be considered because of financial issues.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown entered four horses in both the Grade 2, $150,000 Fort Marcy and the Grade 3, $100,000 Intercontinental Stakes.

In the Fort Marcy, for males at 1 1/16 miles, Brown entered Devamani, Flop Shot, Instilled Regard, and Tribhuvan in the nine-horse field.

Also entered were Social Paranoia, Synchrony, Gucci Factor, and Somelikeithotbrown.

In the Intercontinental, for fillies and mares at seven furlongs, Brown entered the quartet of Newspaperofrecord, Regal Glory, Viadera, and Significant Form, who won the race last year.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Max Player, the Grade 3 Withers winner, put in a sharp workout Wednesday morning over the Belmont Park main track going five furlongs in 1:00.85 and proceeded to gallop out six furlongs in 1:12.38 in preparation for the Belmont Stakes on June 20.

Working by himself, Max Player went his opening eighth in 13.13 seconds, the quarter in 25.49, and got his last three furlongs in 35.36 while working a furlong past the wire.

It was Max Player’s first workout over the main track after breezing primarily over the Belmont training track.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Code of Honor will have no shortage of challengers when he faces 10 rivals in his 4-year-old debut in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Westchester Stakes.

Code of Honor won the Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup – both Grade 1 stakes – last year as well as the Fountain of Youth and Dwyer. Code of Honor will break from post 9 under John Velazquez.

Among the more interesting challengers is Mihos, who is coming off a sharp allowance win April 17 at Gulfstream. In 2019, Mihos won the Mucho Macho Man Stakes while Code of Honor finished fourth.

ELMONT, N.Y. – In a race where any little advantage could be beneficial, Vekoma will enter Saturday’s competitive Grade 1, $250,000 Carter Handicap holding a recency edge over his main rivals.

Though it wasn’t by design, Vekoma, last year’s Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes winner, won the Sir Shackleton Stakes on March 28 at Gulfstream Park. It was his first start since he finished 11th in the 2019 Kentucky Derby.

While California racetracks continue to operate without ontrack spectators for the foreseeable future, some mini-satellites in Southern California have reopened for customers.

The network was closed in March because of the coronavirus outbreak. They are reopening after government officials in California recently began allowing businesses such as restaurants to resume service.

Three weeks after an impressive win in a maiden special weight race at a mile, Regal Beauty will have her stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks.

The $200,000 race at 1 1/16 miles will provide a gauge of where the lightly raced Regal Beauty fits in the national division for 3-year-old fillies. The race is led by Swiss Skydiver, the easy winner of the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks on March 28 and the Grade 3 Fantasy Stakes on May 2 at Oaklawn Park in her last two starts.

The Equibase statistics that indicate trainer Bill Mott is closing in on career victory 5,000 show his first win coming in 1973. Mott is fine with that starting date, though he remembers winning races before then at smaller tracks in Nebraska and South Dakota.

“There were winners, but it’s fair enough if they didn’t count that till ’73,” Mott said. “That just gave me a little practice, that’s all.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- Trainer Jorge Abreu recently shipped the majority of his stable from Palm Meadows back to New York in anticipation of the opening of the Belmont Park meeting this week. But the up-and-coming young conditioner left four horses behind with his brother Fernando at Gulfstream Park, including the stakes-winning Spanish Point and graded stakes-tested Nettleton.