Between them, trainers Doug O’Neill and Bob Baffert have won three of the last four runnings of the Santa Anita Derby, and their drive to this year’s race on April 6 begins in earnest Saturday, when both send out a pair of runners in the Grade 3, $100,000 Sham Stakes, the first graded stakes of the Santa Anita meet for Kentucky Derby prospects.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Purple Egg, who won all three of his starts at 2, lost out on the opportunity to open his 3-year-old campaign here Tuesday in the Gulfstream Park Derby after spiking a fever over the weekend.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The Todd Pletcher-trained Verrazano wasn’t the only 3-year-old to put himself into the Derby picture on opening day. Itsmyluckyday obviously threw his hat in the ring with his one-sided victory in the Gulfstream Park Derby. And Bradester likely punched his ticket to the Grade 3 Holy Bull here later this month with a 1 3/4-length entry-level allowance win going 1 1/16 miles a little earlier on the card.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Four months have gone by since Dry Summer won the only stakes of his career, the Oak Tree Juvenile Turf at Del Mar on Sept. 5.

He will be largely ignored by bettors when he starts in Saturday’s $100,000 Sham Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita, the first stakes of the year in the build-up to the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 6.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – As if trainer Todd Pletcher didn’t already have a strong enough arsenal of 3-year-olds heading into the new year, on Tuesday he wasted little time adding another to the list after Verrazano cruised to an easy 7 3/4-length victory over what appeared to be a loaded maiden field in the second race of the 2013 season.

I feel far differently about the 3-year-old possibilities than I did this time last year. It was clear to me that the division was strong in 2012, that the racing would be competitive, that the 3-year-olds would improve all year and be major factors in the fall.

I want to get enthusiastic about this 2013 group, but when you were so wrong about everything, it is difficult to be confident about anything.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Dominick Schettino said he’s considering the options for his top 3-year-old prospect Always in a Tiz, a son of Tiznow who was stakes placed in his most recent start earlier this month at Aqueduct. Always in a Tiz is nominated to the Gulfstream Park Derby but is not likely to run, according to Schettino.

“We’re still discussing what we want to do with him, but at the moment our thoughts are to look at the graded stakes coming up and try to put him on the Derby trail,” said Schettino.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Like all trainers fortunate to have Kentucky Derby prospects in their barn this winter, Josie Carroll will spend plenty of time over the next few months plotting the best course to get her top 3-year-olds – Tesseron and Avie’s Quality – to the big dance. That task becomes even more daunting this season due to the new points system being employed to determine the top 20 qualifiers for the Derby field.

The Triple Crown trail doesn’t really start winding its way toward the Kentucky Derby until the calendar flips over to the New Year. Whichever horse wins the featured seventh race Wednesday at Fair Grounds will earn a map, a compass, and a chance to venture at least a little ways down that trail in a race like the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 19 at Fair Grounds.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The horses who will make up California’s Kentucky Derby crop next spring did not acquit themselves well in recent weeks. Both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita and the CashCall Futurity at Betfair Hollywood Park were won by horses who shipped in from the East Coast to beat the locals.