OZONE PARK, N.Y. – As a race, Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct is solid. It drew a healthy 11-horse field with a legitimate favorite in Mischevious Alex and a host of intriguing, albeit less accomplished, challengers.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Saffie Joseph Jr. got what he wished for – well, so far. Now all he needs is for Chance It to win.

Joseph scratched Chance It last Saturday at Gulfstream Park after the colt was assigned the outside post for the Fountain of Youth Stakes. One week later, Chance It will break from post 4 when he vies for favoritism with a familiar rival in Sole Volante among a full field of 12 in the 40th running of the Grade 2, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby, the annual highlight at Tampa Bay Downs.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Sole Volante was assigned post 7 as the morning-line favorite in a capacity field of 12 3-year-olds entered in the Grade 2, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby, to be run for the 40th time Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.

The 1 1/16-mile Tampa Bay Derby is one of three Kentucky Derby qualifiers across the country this weekend, along with the Gotham at Aqueduct and the San Felipe at Santa Anita. All three are worth 85 points (50-20-10-5).

Major Fed managed to finish second behind Modernist in the slower second division of the Risen Star while making only his third career start, second around two turns, and first against other winners. Major Fed is a colt with clear ability and classic lines, and Greg Foley, who trains him for owner-breeder Lloyd Madison, thinks Major Fed will find improvement in the Louisiana Derby.

“The horse, right this minute, is doing great and is just ready to go,” Foley said Wednesday.

His connections see no reason to force the pace of Enforceable’s training, and so the most accomplished 3-year-old dirt-route horse stabled at Fair Grounds will have only two works between the Feb. 15 Risen Star and the March 21 Louisiana Derby.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – A double Rebel?

Oaklawn Park split its Grade 2, $1 million Rebel into two $750,000 divisions last year in a move that helped accommodate Southern California-based horsemen when racing at Santa Anita was temporarily suspended the week of the Grade 2 San Felipe.

This year, it remains to be seen whether Oaklawn will split the Rebel, which runs on March 14, but the track is open to running two divisions of the points race for the Kentucky Derby, said Jed Doro, vice president of racing for Oaklawn.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Despite the relative ease with which Mischevious Alex won the Grade 3 Swale Stakes last month at Gulfstream Park, his connections did not start booking rooms in Louisville for the first Saturday in May.

Trainer John Servis, who won the 2004 Kentucky Derby with Smarty Jones, doesn’t necessarily view Mischevious Alex as a horse who wants 1 1/4 miles.

“Looking at his pedigree and the way he’s made, you certainly question that,” Servis said of Mischevious Alex, a son of Into Mischief out of the Speightstown mare White Pants Night.

ARCADIA, Calif. – American Theorem, unraced since a second-place finish in the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita last September, will have his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 14.

Trainer George Papaprodromou said on Wednesday that he considered starting American Theorem in Saturday’s Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita, but wanted to wait an additional week.

“I wanted to give him one more work,” Papaprodromou said. “I want to make sure he’s 100 percent.”

WHO’S HOT

Two newcomers – Charlatan and Major Fed – and a returnee – Three Technique – are the fresh names on this week’s Derby Watch top 20 list. Charlatan is 15-1 on the future line set by Marty McGee of Daily Racing Form for the Kentucky Derby on May 2 at Churchill Downs. Both Major Fed and Three Technique are 50-1. Ete Indien is now the co-third choice on McGee’s line at 8-1, tumbling sharply from last week’s 50-1, following his runaway victory in the Fountain of Youth.

Two months out from the Kentucky Derby on May 2, no trainer holds a stronger hand with 3-year-olds than does Bob Baffert, who has four members of the Derby Watch top 20, two of whom are scheduled to run Saturday in the Grade 2, $400,000 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita, with at least one more scheduled to run the following Saturday in the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel at Oaklawn.