HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Chad Brown is still awaiting word from New York Racing Association officials on when he can return his powerful stable to New York for the remainder of the season. But before he leaves South Florida, Brown got a significant performance from Network Effect, who could be a force to reckon with in the sprint division. Network Effect registered an impressive two-length decision in Saturday’s $100,000 Big Drama Stakes.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – After setting handle records on back-to-back weekends last month, Oaklawn Park moved into a new stratosphere Saturday afternoon, when it handled $41 million.

It came on a 14-race card led by two divisions of the Arkansas Derby won by the Bob Baffert trainees Charlatan and Nadal.

Churchill Downs will open back up for spectator-free racing on May 16-17 with two cards heavy on claiming races while offering purses that are down slightly from when the track last raced, according to the track’s first condition book.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gulfstream Park has updated its coronavirus quarantine protocols for both humans and horses shipping from out of state either to the track or its training centers at Gulfstream Park West and Palm Meadows.

Horses from out of state must quarantine for a minimum of seven days, down from 14, in Florida prior to their arrival at Gulfstream Park, Palm Meadows, or Gulfstream Park West.

Bob Baffert had everything but the roses Saturday. The five-time Kentucky Derby-winning trainer won the biggest 3-year-old races of the day on the first Saturday in May, and celebrated, as he would have in Louisville, with a steak dinner from his favorite restaurant.

The Arkansas Derby was split into two divisions, enabling Baffert to capture both, with Charlatan and then Nadal. Both were favored, both remained unbeaten, and both emerged from their races in good order, Baffert said Sunday morning.

Saturday was supposed to be the day Authentic and Honor A. P. took their places in the starting gate at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby. Instead, the highly-promising 3-year-old colts worked at Santa Anita over the weekend in preparation for the rescheduled Santa Anita Derby on June 6.

Honor A. P. worked five furlongs in 1:00 on Saturday, a day before Authentic went the same distance in 1:00.40.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – By My Standards emerged from his career-best performance in the Grade 2, $600,000 Oaklawn Handicap on Saturday in good order and now has a goal of targeting a Grade 1 race, trainer Bret Calhoun said Sunday.

By My Standards was a 1 3/4-length winner of the Oaklawn Handicap, defeating a field that included Santa Anita Handicap winner Combatant and Grade 2 winners Mr Freeze, Tacitus, and Tax.

“I thought it was a really, really good field of quality horses,” Calhoun said.

In a world free of the coronavirus, Tiz the Law would have spent Saturday morning at Churchill Downs going through the usual preparations prior to parading postward as the likely favorite in the Kentucky Derby.

Instead, Florida Derby winner Tiz the Law spent Saturday morning at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida where he breezed an easy five furlongs in 1:01.45 under exercise rider Heather Smullen, continuing to bide his time awaiting whatever as yet undetermined race will be his next.   

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer Ken McPeek had Swiss Skydiver primed for a top performance the first Friday in May. But instead of coming in the Kentucky Oaks, which has been postponed to Sept. 4, it came in the Grade 3, $400,000 Fantasy at Oaklawn Park.    

Swiss Skydiver won the mile and a sixteenth race in a sharp time of 1:42 and earned a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 99. It’s the top number put up by a 3-year-old filly so far in North America, according to statistics from Daily Racing Form.

If you watched Welder run a well-beaten fourth as the odds-on favorite Dec. 14 at Remington in his 6-year-old finale you might have wondered how he’d fare making his 7-year-old debut in the TRAO Sprint Stakes on April 28 at Will Rogers Downs.