NEW ORLEANS – The last three Risen Star Stakes winners shipped from Florida, and the pipeline is still open. Normandy Invasion, from trainer Chad Brown, and Palace Malice, from Todd Pletcher, could wind up the top two betting choices in this year’s Risen Star on Saturday.

Bob Baffert’s entrant, Code West, got a form boost Monday when the horse who beat him Jan. 31 in a Santa Anita allowance race, Super Ninety Nine, romped in the Southwest Stakes. Oxbow, the Lecomte Stakes hero here Jan. 19, is coming back from Arkansas.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Super Ninety Nine’s win in the Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Monday was somewhat reminiscent of Oxbow’s score in last month’s Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte at Fair Grounds.

Both horses were front-running, 11-length winners of the first graded 3-year-old preps in this region. And both traveled for their races for Hall of Fame trainers. But their paths are not likely to cross soon.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Although trainer Bill Mott was the No. 1 star this past week, leading trainer Todd Pletcher didn’t fare too badly himself over the holiday weekend. Pletcher sent out Capo Bastone to win his 3-year-old debut Saturday, then came back Monday to register impressive allowance wins with a pair of 4-year-olds, Hierro and the filly Ciao Bella.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Super Ninety Nine continued the grip his trainer, Bob Baffert, has had on the 3-year-old stakes program at Oaklawn on Monday, when he took quick command of  the Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest and went on to an 11 1/4-length victory over Fear the Kitten. It was another 2 1/4 lengths back to Heaven's Runway in third.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A surprisingly large field of 11 3-year-olds passed the entry box Monday for Saturday’s $400,000 Fountain of Youth, although just how many will actually make it into the starting gate remains to be seen.

The Grade 2 Fountain of Youth is one of three graded stakes on Saturday’s card along with the $250,000 Davona Dale for 3-year-old fillies and the $150,000 Canadian Turf.

The large field, which includes favored Violence and late entrant He’s Had Enough, even caught racing secretary Dan Bork a bit off guard.

NEW ORLEANS – Short fields lacking depth have been an all-too-regular part Fair Grounds racing this winter. And it’s not just day-to-day Fair Grounds fare. Even the glamour 3-year-old graded-stakes division has felt the pinch at tracks across the country. The Feb. 2 Robert Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita, for instance, went with a field of four.

Put it this way: It would take almost four Lewises to equal the field entered Monday for Saturday’s Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds.

Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. is already firmly entrenched on the Kentucky Derby trail with Itsmyluckyday, a Lawyer Ron colt who upended undefeated juvenile champion Shanghai Bobby in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 26.

ARCADIA, Calif. – In his first start since November and likely his last one before being asked to stretch out around two turns, Shakin It Up proved best in a thrilling stretch drive to capture the Grade 2, $150,000 San Vicente Stakes for 3-year-olds on Sunday at Santa Anita.

Shakin It Up ($6.40) rated behind the early pace of Belvin and Caballo Del Cielo, then knifed between horses during a furious stretch drive that at one point saw all six runners abreast. He proved best by one length over Treasury Bill, with Caballo Del Cielo another three-quarters of a length back in third.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -  Six potential starters for Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park turned in their final preps Sunday morning at a frigid Palm Meadows. The group ncluded likely favorite Violence, who went five furlongs in 1:00.36 in company with stablemate Palace Malice.

ALBANY, Calif. -- Jose Valdivia Jr. was quite content to sit back as Manando set a brisk pace in the 32nd running of the  Grade 3, $200,000 El Camino Real Derby on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields.

And when the real running began in the 1 1/8-mile race, Dice Flavor made a strong move and outraced Nina's Dragon to the wire in a victory that earned him 10 points in the 36-race Road to the Kentucky Derby series.

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]