DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Saeed bin Suroor, the trainer of two-time Dubai World Cup winner Thunder Snow, isn’t a huge one for pulling back the curtain on his training operation, but whatever he and his team have done to harness the difficult personality that is Thunder Snow, it has worked.

Thunder Snow showed just what can happen when his inner demons bubble to the surface when he bucked and refused to race just after the start of the 2017 Kentucky Derby. Those who’ve been around him during his trips to the U.S. describe a horse who takes a lot of attention.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – One hundred days after winning his maiden under a $16,000 claiming tag, Maximum Security became a Grade 1 winner and established himself as one of the leading contenders for the Kentucky Derby after cruising to a relatively easy 3 1/2 length victory over the 71-1 Bodexpress in Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Trainer Brendan Walsh spent six years during the early and mid-aughts working in Dubai. Jockey Jose Ortiz got to this place for the first time Wednesday, but he’s riding like he’s been here all his life.

After guiding Coal Front to victory Saturday in the Godolphin Mile, his first mount at Meydan Racecourse, Ortiz piloted Plus Que Parfait to a win in the Group 2, $2.5 million UAE Derby.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Omaha Beach, who has risen rapidly in the 3-year-old division in recent months, worked a half-mile in 47.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday in preparation for the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on April 13.

Working with a stablemate, Omaha Beach ran two wide and pulled clear under Alex Solis to record the quickest time of 25 works at the distance. Solis, the former jockey, assists trainer Richard Mandella and occasionally works horses.

Mandella timed Omaha Beach in 47.16 seconds and the colt finished several lengths clear of his stablemate.

Mind Control, a multiple stakes winner around one turn, will make his next start at Aqueduct in the Grade 3, $250,000 Bay Shore Stakes at seven furlongs and not the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at nine furlongs, trainer Gregg Sacco said Friday.

That decision effectively removes Mind Control from consideration for the Kentucky Derby. Mind Control has 30 qualifying points for the Derby, which as of Friday put him 11th in the standings under the system used by Churchill Downs to determine the 20 horses for the Kentucky Derby.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Blue Point went down to the 1,200-meter straight-course start of the 2018 Al Quoz Sprint expected to emerge a winner of the Group 1 turf dash. Instead, he never emerged from the starting gate. Blue Point acted up behind the gate, cut himself, and was scratched.

Oh well – there’s still 2019. Blue Point, 5, is a year older, at least as fast, and potentially wiser going into the $2 million Al Quoz on Saturday at Meydan.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Ask the trainers of the leading contenders in Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby to talk about the opposition, and none seems to know what to expect when they get to Maximum Security. Ask Maximum Security’s trainer, Jason Servis, how he feels the undefeated former $16,000 claimer will perform in the important Kentucky Derby prep, and his answer is pretty much the same.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Despite his fourth-place finish as the 6-5 choice in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on March 2, Hidden Scroll was pegged the 5-2 morning-line favorite in a field of 11 3-year-olds drawn Wednesday for the $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. The Grade 1 Florida Derby highlights a 14-race program Saturday that includes six other stakes and will offer a mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6 pool, with a carryover of more than $3 million if the jackpot is not hit Thursday or Friday.

Hidden Scroll

Hard Spun–Sheba Queen, by Empire Maker

Bred in Kentucky by Juddmonte Farms

Flashy debut winner Hidden Scroll was the victim of a brutal pace when he faded to fourth in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park earlier this month behind Code of Honor. Hidden Scroll, who is from an outstanding family typical of Juddmonte’s program, gets a chance at redemption in Saturday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby.

The first time Shug McGaughey ran horses in the Kentucky Derby, he was all of 33 years old and on the fast track to what has proven to be a Hall of Fame career. He was hoping a Derby win would come quickly, “to get it over with,” as he put it this week.

But it took another 29 years for McGaughey to finally tick off that box and get a Derby win, with Orb in 2013. And the wait – which included a runner-up finish by Easy Goer in 1989 – made it all the sweeter, he said.

“I think it made me appreciate it that much more,” McGaughey said on a national teleconference.