Gettysburg and Collected both had run-ins with leading Kentucky Derby candidates last month and as such figure to start as the top two choices Sunday in the $415,000 Sunland Park Festival of Racing Stakes. Gettysburg was fifth to Destin in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, while Collected ran fourth to Suddenbreakingnews in the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Not only are the two top seeds for the Kentucky Derby, Mohaymen and Nyquist, on course to collide in the $1 million Florida Derby, they also are on similar training schedules, with each turning in his penultimate work Friday for the much-anticipated battle here April 2.

Airoforce is the most accomplished among a sizable roster of 3-year-olds being pointed to the Grade 3, $500,000 Spiral Stakes on April 2 at Turfway Park.

Trainer Mark Casse said Friday that owner John Oxley will have to supplement Airoforce after an oversight left the colt off the nominations list for the Spiral, a 1 1/8-mile Polytrack race that offers 50 Kentucky Derby eligibility points to the winner.

Trainer Todd Pletcher, who has won the Louisiana Derby three times, will be shipping Battery from Palm Beach Downs for this year’s race next Saturday at Fair Grounds.

A son of Bernardini and the Saint Ballado mare Flawless Diamond, Battery has won 2 of 4 starts, all around two turns. He’s coming off a first-level optional $75,000 claiming victory at 1 1/8 miles on Feb. 10 at Gulfstream Park in his second start as a 3-year-old.

“He’s definitely a two-turn horse,” Pletcher said. “He’s already won at a mile and an eighth. We didn’t want to back up.”

NEW ORLEANS – Distance was the reason that trainer Mark Casse chose the 1 1/8-mile Louisiana Derby over the 1 1/16-mile Rebel Stakes for Conquest Windycity.

“I wanted the extra ground,” Casse said of the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby, to be run next Saturday at Fair Grounds. Conquest Windycity will be shipped here from Oaklawn Park, where the Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel will be run this Saturday.

Smokey Image and Uncle Lino, who were fifth and fourth in the San Felipe Stakes last Saturday, will try again against one-two-three finishers Danzing Candy, Mor Spirit, and Exaggerator in the Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby on April 9, their trainers said Thursday.

The $500,000 Santa Margarita at Santa Anita is the only Grade 1 event on Saturday, but there are other stakes worthy of attention. Oaklawn has a graded stakes tripleheader topped by the Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel, while the main event at Gulfstream is the Grade 2, $200,000 Inside Information.

Rebel Stakes

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Grade 3 stakes winner Cocked and Loaded, gearing up for his first start of the year in the Blue Grass Stakes, breezed five furlongs in 59.80 seconds at Tampa Bay Downs on Thursday, the fastest of 15 works at the distance. It was the second straight bullet workout for the 3-year-old Cocked and Loaded, following a half-mile in 47.60 on March 9.

Trainer Larry Rivelli said Cocked and Loaded worked “like a monster.”

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – O, for a horse with points!

Kentucky Derby qualifying points are what the owners of promising 3-year-olds crave seven weeks out from the Kentucky Derby, and plenty are at stake Saturday in the Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

The wait for fast 3-year-olds officially ended last Saturday when Destin improved on his 91 Beyer Speed Figure in the Sam F. Davis Stakes with a 100 while winning the Tampa Bay Derby. The place horse, Outwork, improved dramatically, from a 77 to a 98, with a big gap back to third. This is not typically a key Kentucky Derby prep, but these performances were excellent.