MIAMI – Our Caravan showed why trainer Michael Dilger had tried him against the cream of south Florida’s 3-year-old division this winter by drawing away to a 9 3/4-length victory over the odds-on Ring Weekend in Saturday’s $250,000 Calder Derby.

MIAMI – Our Caravan showed why trainer Michael Dilger had tried him against the cream of south Florida’s 3-year-old division this winter by drawing away to a 9 3/4-length victory over the odds-on Ring Weekend in Saturday’s $250,000 Calder Derby.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Thundergram will add blinkers for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby after turning in an impressive work in the equipment Saturday at Oaklawn Park. He was one of several horses tuning up for the $3.3 million Racing Festival of the South, which features nine stakes over the final week of the meet. The series closes with the Arkansas Derby on April 12.

Oaklawn’s track was rated “fast” for works Saturday on a clear, 45-degree morning.

Michael Buckley, owner of Toast of New York, the winner of the UAE Derby, told the British racing channel Racing UK on Friday that it was unlikely Toast of New York would come to the United States for the Kentucky Derby on May 3.

“No decisions have been made, but I think it’s fair enough to say I don’t think the concept of going off to Kentucky on the other side of the world and slogging around on the dirt is a fair thing to do with a horse like him,” Buckley said.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Todd Pletcher said Danza is possible for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby, and if the horse goes he would lift the projected field for the April 12 race at Oaklawn Park to eight. Pletcher already has Commissioner committed, joining expected starters Bayern, Conquest Titan, Ride On Curlin, Strong Mandate, Tapiture, and Thundergram.

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[bc_video_id:320295:]ARCADIA, Calif. – Art Sherman was going to be a little late to Santa Anita on Thursday morning. He had to oversee his main stable of horses down at Los Alamitos, so his son and assistant trainer, Alan, supervised the morning preparation of California Chrome here at Santa Anita in advance of his start in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby.

His first priority when he got to Santa Anita was to get a haircut, “So I look halfway decent,” Sherman said.

When last seen in New York, Wicked Strong was finishing a respectable third in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct, setting him up for a potential trip down the Triple Crown trail.

But Gulfstream Park didn’t agree with Wicked Strong, who finished ninth in the Holy Bull Stakes and fourth in an allowance race, albeit beaten by Constitution, who won last Saturday’s Florida Derby.

Wicked Strong is back in New York and back at Aqueduct, where he will run in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial.

The standing-room-only crowds from the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament are long gone, but that does not mean the sports books here have become ghost towns.

Wood Memorial Day at Aqueduct is the unofficial start of spring and quality racing in New York, with the Wood and the Carter Handicap the first Grade 1 races in the Empire State since the Cigar Mile last Thanksgiving weekend. This year’s unusual 12-race all-dirt card, however, is also a bit of a Groundhog Day – a reminder that there’s still some chill in the air and that save for a four-race stretch of stakes racing, winter racing is not quite over in these parts.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With so much attention paid to the brilliantly fast Social Inclusion, it’s been easy to overlook the fact there is an undefeated multiple graded stakes winner in the field for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

“That’s okay, I don’t mind sneaking up on people,” said Rick Violette, the trainer of Samraat, who is 5 for 5 including victories in the Withers and Gotham – both Grade 3 races – over Aqueduct’s inner track.