HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Large fields have been the norm for the first pair of preps for 3-year-olds at this Oaklawn meet, and more of the same is expected next Saturday for the Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel.

The group of probables for the 1 1/16-mile race includes Ralis, the winner of last year’s Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga, and Discreetness and Suddenbreakingnews, who won Oaklawn’s Smarty Jones Stakes and Grade 3 Southwest. Entries will be taken Wednesday.

“I look for 10 and would not be surprised if 11 or 12 showed up,” said Oaklawn racing secretary Pat Pope.

Picking a Kentucky Derby winner is sometimes as much about bragging rights as it is about winning money. People spend all winter trying to figure out which horse is going to win the race, and handicappers employ a number of different approaches – looking at the major preps, trainers, historical angles, pace scenarios, post position, pedigree, owners, jockeys, or any combination of factors.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Exaggerator was very good at 2 but showed in his last start that he has the potential to be even better at 3. Trainer Keith Desormeaux is hoping Exaggerator continues to move forward when he moves back around two turns Saturday in the Grade 2, $400,000 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita, which is coming up as the deepest Kentucky Derby prep run this year.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – On paper, Saturday’s $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby seems to set up well for Brody’s Cause. The speedsters Awesome Banner, Morning Fire, Riker, and Tale of S’avall should ensure a lively pace in the 1 1/16-mile test, and it will be up to the late-running Brody’s Cause to catch them in the stretch.

Horses looking to “spiral up” and draw a step closer to a Kentucky Derby berth will clash Saturday night at Turfway Park in a competitive 34th running of the $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial.

An oversubscribed field of 3-year-olds with no clear-cut favorite entered the Battaglia, a 1 1/16-mile Polytrack race that leads to the annual Turfway showcase, the $500,000 Spiral Stakes.

The Santa Anita Handicap is truly a great race. And Saturday’s renewal of this Grade 1, $1 million event heads a tremendous Santa Anita card that includes the Grade 1, $400,000 Frank E. Kilroe Mile, the Grade 2, $400,000 San Felipe, and the Grade 2, $300,000 San Carlos.

Elsewhere, Saturday is the biggest day of the year at Tampa Bay Downs, where the Grade 2, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby tops a program that also includes the champion turf female Tepin in the Grade 2, $200,000 Hillsborough Stakes.

Santa Anita Handicap

Churchill Downs Inc. and its ticketing provider, Ticketmaster, will create an Internet resale exchange this year for ticketholders to the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks, the two companies announced on Thursday.

The resale exchange will provide Churchill Downs with a platform to compete with independent resellers and profit from the resale of Derby and Oaks tickets. Churchill has long complained about the unauthorized resale of Derby tickets, which are the most sought-after of any racing event in the U.S.

I first began to understand this game in the late 1970s through the prism of Beyer Speed Figures. The numbers tell the story we can’t see. However, at the risk of getting excommunicated from the Church of Beyer, I am telling you to ignore Songbird’s 2016 Beyers.

After topping out at a 99 last year in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, she has an 88 and a 93 this year. I am convinced she can get into the 105-110 range if necessary, so evaluate her on that basis. The big numbers are coming.

Candy My Boy, who held admirably for fourth in the Risen Star after setting a very strong pace, worked an easy half-mile in 50.60 seconds last weekend at Fair Grunds and is likely to make his next start in the Louisiana Derby.

“If everything goes right, he probably will [run],” said trainer Roger Brueggemann. “He probably deserves another shot.”

Mo Tom continues to do well in his daily training and came out of a sharp half-mile workout last Saturday at Fair Grounds in good shape, and while Tom Amoss isn’t certain whether Mo Tom will have one or two more works before the Louisiana Derby, Mo Tom won’t be working again on Saturday.

“We have a lot of bad weather coming in tonight, and it’s going to be around for a while,” Amoss said Wednesday. “It’s still up in the air when he’ll work again.”