Bob Baffert is contemplating the $1.5 million Saudi Derby on Feb. 22 for Getaway Car and Romanesque, though Baffert’s itinerary for 3-year-olds is subject to change.

“This is when I nominate everywhere, I even nominated to Sunland Park,” Baffert said.

His nominees to the $400,000 Sunland Derby on Feb. 16 include Barnes, Gaming, Getaway Car, Romanesque, and San Saba. Post positions for the Sunland Derby will be drawn Sunday.

A pair that might be better suited to distances shorter than 1 1/4 miles are tentatively scheduled to ship the Middle East.

Recently honored with its fifth consecutive Eclipse Award for leading owner and having campaigned seven equine North American champions over the last four years, Godolphin – the global operation of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum – has achieved a remarkable amount of success in the United States.

While his Grade 2 Remsen winner Poster runs Saturday in the $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, trainer Eoin Harty also looks forward to the return of First Resort, winner of the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club in his most recent start Nov. 30 at Churchill Downs. First Resort is headed to the John Battaglia Stakes, a synthetic-surface race Feb. 22 at Turfway Park.

Journalism’s splashy arrival as a leading California 3-year-old hit a setback after his impressive win Dec. 14 in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity. But if a Derby candidate must have a setback, there is no better time than December or January.

“He got a temp not long after he ran, from a vaccination,” trainer Michael McCarthy said. “Just decided to let him get over it himself. It actually might have been better. Instead of rushing to make this spot, or [that spot], it worked out for the best. He looks fantastic. I mean, he looks really well.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Holy Bull winner Burnham Square and the exciting prospect River Thames are two of four 3-year-olds who competed here Saturday who could possibly return in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes on March 1 or await the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 29.

ARCADIA, Calif. – It’s always exciting when a champion 2-year-old returns for his first start at age 3, but Eclipse Award winner Citizen Bull is no walkover Saturday at Santa Anita.

There is one virtual certainty, however: Trainer Bob Baffert is likely to score his seventh straight victory in the one-mile, Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis. It helps to have the best horses, as well as the most horses, and Baffert starts three: Citizen Bull, maiden route winner Rodriguez, and maiden sprint winner Madaket Road.

The Fair Grounds starting gate can accommodate 14 runners, and 14 3-year-olds are entered in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Lecomte Stakes, the first race in the second tier of qualifying races that comprise Churchill Downs’s Road to the Kentucky Derby.

There’s not always strength in numbers, however, and Built, the 3-1 Lecomte morning-line favorite, stands a strong chance of tacking 20 more Kentucky Derby qualifying points onto the 10 he earned winning the Gun Runner last month.