NEW ORLEANS – On the Beyer Speed Figure scale, Blackberry Wine was the fastest 3-year-old Saturday at Fair Grounds. Beating favored Digital by one length in a first-level allowance, Blackberry Wine ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.22, earning a 94 Beyer.

Blackberry Wine now is 6-2-0-3, his wins coming in his only two dirt routes. Last fall, Blackberry Wine led all the way in a sloppy-track maiden route at Churchill. In his start before Saturday’s, he ran third in an allowance race on yielding turf at Fair Grounds.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The undefeated stakes winner Fast Enough is likely to have his graded stakes debut in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes for 3-year-olds on March 7 after a hard-fought win in Saturday’s $200,500 California Cup Derby at Santa Anita.

NEW ORLEANS – On a day Steve Asmussen could look back over the remarkable breadth of his career, when he became the third trainer with 1,000 stakes wins, there was plenty of hope for the future on display at Fair Grounds.

Some racing fans and bettors bemoan the modern practice of limiting Thoroughbreds’ starts, training and training with one race in mind and restricting a horse to a minimal number of races per year.

These folks have no beef with Mark Casse.

Casse believes in running his horses, not sitting on them, and the six starts Enforceable made as a 2-year-old laid the foundation for his 3-year-old debut Saturday at Fair Grounds, where he won the Lecomte Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths to push onto the Triple Crown trail.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Apprentice Romero Maragh returned to the saddle Sunday for the first time since fracturing a pair of vertebrae in his spine in a spill here nearly a year ago. Maragh finished eighth aboard Rayo My King in Sunday’s eighth race.

Maragh underwent a six-hour procedure to fuse four thoracic vertebrae to repair injuries suffered in the frightening spill last Jan. 31.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There is no shortage of quality turf horses in trainer Mike Maker’s barn these days, and a good many of them will be participating in the two most important grass races on Saturday’s card, the $1 million Pegasus Turf Invitational and the Grade 3, $200,000 W.L. McKnight.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Short-priced horses have dominated the Pegasus World Cup in its brief history, with Arrogate ($3.80), Gun Runner ($4.20), and City of Light ($5.80) winning the first three runnings.

Omaha Beach might well become the fourth when the $3 million Pegasus is renewed Saturday at Gulfstream Park, but trainer Danny Gargan is hoping it’s time for a change. Gargan will send out Tax as a potential upsetter in an expected field of 12 in the 1 1/8-mile race.

Independence Hall, a leading Kentucky Derby contender off his victories in the Nashua and Jerome at Aqueduct, breezed a half-mile in 49.60 seconds Sunday at Tampa in his second local work since arriving shortly after the Jan. 1 Jerome.

“That was enough for today,” trainer Mike Trombetta said. “He just ran 19 days ago. It’s where I want him to be. He did just enough, and next week I’ll ask him for a bit more.”

A couple of notable riding feats last weekend at Tampa Bay Downs coincided with the return of stakes action to the Oldsmar, Fla., track, for the first time since Dec. 18.

Edgard Zayas, in from Gulfstream Park for the first time at the 2019-20 meet, not only swept both 3-year-old stakes Saturday, the Pasco and Gasparilla, but he also won with his other two mounts on the day.

“I’ve won four in a day before,” Zayas said upon returning Sunday to Gulfstream, “but I’ve never gone 4 for 4 before. It was pretty amazing.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.  – Omaha Beach, the solid favorite for the Pegasus World Cup on Saturday, had his final breeze toward the $3 million race when going five furlongs in 1:00.72 Sunday morning over a fast Gulfstream track.

Fernando De La Cruz, an exercise rider for Mark Hennig (and not the Midwest-based jockey), was aboard Omaha Beach, who went in splits of 24.77 and 36.75, with a six-furlong “out” time of 1:14.01, according to Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch.