WHO’S HOT

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jose Ortiz has been fitted with a splint for his fractured right wrist and said he expects to miss at least four weeks of riding.

Ortiz, the 2017 Eclipse Award winner for top jockey, suffered the injury in a post-parade accident Saturday at Gulfstream. He had been scheduled to ride this weekend in Saudi Arabia, but according to a Tuesday post on his Twitter account, Ortiz won’t be able to ride at least until late March or early April, when the Keeneland spring meet gets under way.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Maxfield isn’t the only promising 3-year-old in the Brendan Walsh barn whose return to action has been highly anticipated.

Vitalogy, unraced since finishing a fast-closing second in the Grade 3 Bourbon Stakes last October at Keeneland, will make his seasonal debut Saturday at Gulfstream in the Grade 3, $150,000 Palm Beach Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile turf race on the Fountain of Youth undercard. Javier Castellano has the mount on the British-bred colt by No Nay Never.

Sir Rick is being pointed for the Grade 3, $700,000 Sunland Park Derby on March 22, trainer Robertino Diodoro said on Monday. The horse will enter the mile and an eighth race off a win in the $100,000 Mine That Bird Derby, the local prep which was run Sunday.

The Sunland Derby offers Kentucky Derby qualifying points on a scale of 50-20-10-5.

Delta Downs announcer Don Stevens grew up in several states because of his father’s position with the Federal Aviation Administration. The most influential of them all might have been Washington.

Stevens has long been a diehard fan of the Seattle Seahawks. But the connection goes much deeper.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Jimmy Jerkens revealed Tuesday afternoon that his Kentucky Derby hopeful Green Light Go will not run in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth as originally planned after spiking a temperature on Monday night.

A large paddock-adjacent tent erected over a decade ago at Saratoga Race Course will be removed for this year’s live racing meet beginning in July, the operator of the track, the New York Racing Association, announced on Tuesday.

Unbeaten 3-year-old No Parole will make his first start outside Louisiana-bred competition in the $1 million Rebel Stakes on March 14 at Oaklawn Park.

Part-owner Maggi Moss announced the race choice on Twitter after No Parole worked a half-mile in 49.40 on Monday at Fair Grounds. Tom Amoss trains No Parole and has the crack 4-year-old filly Serengeti Empress pointed to the $350,000 Azeri Stakes on the same Oaklawn program.

Champion filly British Idiom tops the list of 116 early nominations for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks, to be contested May 1 at Churchill Downs. That number is virtually identical to the 115 nominees for the filly classic whom Churchill Downs announced as eligible at this time last year.

Zulu Alpha is the likely favorite in the Grade 2, $200,000 Mac Diarmida on the Gulfstream Park undercard Saturday based on his 11-1 victory in the Pegasus World Cup Turf.

Trainer Mike Maker said the 1 3/8-mile Mac Diarmida is a bridge toward the next main goal for the 7-year-old gelding, the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic on the May 2 Kentucky Derby undercard.