OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Apprentice jockey Luis Cardenas recorded his first career victory Friday when, despite stumbling at the head of the lane and dropping his whip in deep stretch, he was able to rally Solitary Gem to a 3 1/2-length victory in the eighth race at Aqueduct.

The win came in Cardenas’ 15th career mount and one race after he finished second on 43-1 shot Sea Sparkle.

“Very excited, very emotional, very overwhelmed to be here in New York especially racing with the big guys,” Cardenas, 22, said after getting doused with water by his fellow riders.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The four-time stakes winner Baja Sur will have his Southern California debut in the $150,000 California Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Jan. 18, three weeks after the 4-year-old was held out of the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes.

Trainer Blaine Wright said on Friday he has no regrets passing the Malibu Stakes, which was won convincingly by Omaha Beach under jockey Mike Smith.

“It looked like Mike never moved his hands on him,” Wright said. “I know my horse was good at the time. The object is to win.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Anneau d’Or, second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita in November, is nearing his first workout of 2020 and could appear in a stakes for 3-year-olds at one of several venues in late February, trainer Blaine Wright said on Friday.

Anneau d’Or, who is owned by Peter Redekop, was second as the 6-5 favorite in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 7, finishing a neck behind the undefeated Thousand Words.

“He’ll be back on the work tab soon,” Wright aid. “Things are going fine. We’ll be looking for something at the end of February.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Andrea Atzeni, who rides primarily in the United Kingdom, has returned to Santa Anita for the second consecutive winter for a month-long stay, he said on Friday.

Atzeni has one mount on Saturday and is booked on Lagoon Macaroon in Sunday’s fourth race.

Last winter, Atzeni, 28, had two wins during a brief stay in Southern California, including the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes with True Valour last February, More recently, Atzeni won the Grade 1 Canadian International at Woodbine on Desert Encounter in October.

Longtime Maryland horseman Hamilton Smith sent out the 2,000th winner of his career on Friday when Sweet Home Dixie won the second race at Laurel Park. Appropriately, Sweet Home Dixie is owned by Franklin Smith, who bred the 4-year-old filly in South Carolina. The Smith brothers’ careers have been intertwined practically their entire lives and they have deep roots in their home state.

Sweet Home Dixie is a daughter of Done Talking, who won the 2012 Illinois Derby for Hamilton Smith. In his next start, Done Talking, finished 12th in the Kentucky Derby

You can tell there’s a good chance of rain in New Orleans from the four-strong list of main-track-only entrants in the fourth race Sunday at Fair Grounds.

The race is carded for one mile on turf and open to 3-year-old first-level allowance runners or $50,000 claimers, and it appears the strength of the group lies among the horses entered only to run on dirt.

La Femme Royale won the featured eighth race Thursday at Fair Grounds as a 5-1 shot, but her victory shouldn’t have been surprising.

Matt Shirer trains La Femme Royale, and Shirer, 15 starts into this Fair Grounds season, has won more times than he’s lost. La Femme Royal’s tally ran his record this meet to 8-3-1. Shirer’s return on $2 win investments so far at Fair Grounds is $10.92.

The highly promising Fair Grounds-based 3-year-old filly Taraz will make her 2020 debut in the Martha Washington Stakes on Feb. 1 at Oaklawn Park, trainer Brad Cox said Friday.

Cox and owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms were considering several races for Taraz, including the Jan. 21 Silverbulletday at Fair Grounds, but elected to ship her to Oaklawn, where Cox has a string of horses.

Scabbard will have his 2020 debut in the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 18 at Fair Grounds after shipping from the Palm Meadows training center in Florida to New Orleans on Wednesday.

Scabbard, trainer Eddie Kenneally said, is slated for a Fair Grounds workout either Jan. 11 or 12, depending on the weather.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – They’ll be back in dribs and drabs, these graded stakes winners that Chad Brown has stashed away a little north of Gulfstream Park.

Although some won’t make their 2020 debut until later at this championship meet, and some won’t even resurface until Keeneland or Belmont Park in the spring, the first one is here: Feedback, who will be heavily favored at Gulfstream on Sunday when she faces five other filly-mare sprinters in the 10th of 11 races, a $52,000 second-level allowance at 6 1/2 furlongs.