BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – Chad Brown has won Breeders’ Cup races and trained Eclipse Award winners, he’s won Grade 1 races on both dirt and turf, he got his first Eclipse Award as champion trainer this year, and he’s got a deep, powerful stable that takes up several barns here at the Palm Meadows training center in south Florida.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – Classic Empire, who missed a work when an abscess popped out the heel of his right front hoof days after his third-place finish in the Holy Bull at Gulfstream last month, is back galloping at Palm Meadows. Trainer Mark Casse said he is hoping to breeze Classic Empire “in the next few days,” but first wants the warm weather to dissipate.

“I just don’t think he likes the warmer weather,” Casse said Wednesday. “I think once he gets to Kentucky, he’ll blossom.”

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – The setbacks incurred by both Classic Empire and McCraken in recent weeks here in south Florida give them the opportunity for just one more prep for the May 6 Kentucky Derby, and as of Wednesday, there was a real possibility that both could wind up in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 8.

WHO’S HOT

Irish War Cry

Curlin-Irish Sovereign, by Polish Numbers

(Bred in New Jersey by Isabelle de Tomaso)

Two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, who retired as North America’s leading money winner, was a force at classic distances throughout his racing career, winning the Preakness Stakes, Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Dubai World Cup. His offspring have followed closely in his footsteps.

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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – McCraken, the unbeaten colt who ranks as the favorite for the May 6 Kentucky Derby, will miss his next scheduled prep race, the March 11 Tampa Bay Derby, after sustaining what trainer Ian Wilkes described as a “very minor” injury to his left front ankle.

All was fine for McCraken following a Monday breeze at the Palm Meadows training center, but “we noticed he was a little off this morning,” Wilkes said Tuesday.

Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes; 1 1/16 miles; Fair Grounds; Feb. 25, 2017
(50 Derby qualifying points for a win, 20 for second, 10 for third, 5 for fourth)

Winner: Girvin, by Tale of Ekati
Trainer: Joe Sharp
Jockey: Brian Hernandez Jr.
Owner: Brad Grady
Beyer Speed Figure: 93

Gormley and Mastery, both Grade 1 winners and two of the top 3-year-olds in California, both worked six furlongs on Monday at Santa Anita, and they could face one another in the Grade 2, $400,000 San Felipe Stakes on March 11.

Gormley, with regular rider Victor Espinoza up, was timed in 1:11, the fastest time of 14 at the distance. Mastery was timed in 1:15.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though Action Everyday has won both of his starts, trainer Todd Pletcher believes the horse has more to give. So, when Pletcher runs Action Everyday in Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct, he plans to equip the son of The Factor with blinkers for the first time.

Pletcher noted that when Action Everyday won a first-level allowance race at Tampa Bay Downs on Jan. 27, he was a bit reluctant to load, and when he made the lead at the top of the stretch, he thought the race was completed.

McCraken had his first workout since his latest victory when breezing a half-mile in company in 48.80 seconds Monday at his winter base at the Palm Meadows training center in Boynton Beach, Fla.

With regular rider Brian Hernandez Jr. in from New Orleans, McCraken worked alongside his Ian Wilkes-trained stablemate Fifth Title, a 4-year-old maiden.

“I got him galloping out in 1:12 flat, then another eighth in 13 and 1,” said Wilkes. “I’m very pleased with the horse. All’s good.”