HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park is having a two-for-one special on graded earnings Monday.

The Southwest Stakes, the track’s first major prep for 3-year-olds, has been split into two divisions after 21 horses were entered Saturday. Each race will be a Grade 3 worth $250,000. Longview Drive and Junebugred will break side by side in the first division, which will go as the eighth race with a field of 11. Secret Circle leads the second division, set as the ninth race and the second half of a special daily double linking the twin Southwests.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Creative Cause does not have to win his comeback Sunday at Santa Anita. The goal, after all, is 1 1/4 miles in May, rather than a sprint in February.

Trainer Mike Harrington downplays the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes, but the implications are unmistakable. The seven-furlong race is the first start for Creative Cause since a third-place finish Nov. 5 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

The ride starts over Sunday against five rivals in the San Vicente.

Sir Bond looked like one of the best 3-year-olds on the grounds with a breakthrough maiden route victory Thursday.

Second in his career debut at Churchill last fall, Sir Bond had finished a close second and a close third in two maiden route races at Fair Grounds, but in Thursday’s seventh race he took a serious step forward, rallying to a 7 1/4-length victory while facing 11 rivals. Sir Bond’s good 1 1/16-mile time of 1:45.12 produced a Beyer Speed Figure of 91, the highest such number for a 3-year-old route horse this winter in New Orleans.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Longview Drive completed his preparations for Monday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Friday morning, when he breezed a half-mile in 48.20 seconds. He worked first after the renovation break, and after easing into the drill came home strongly, with Oaklawn clockers catching his final quarter in 22.80 seconds. The move was the second fastest of 57 at the distance Friday.

Editor’s Note: Countdown to the Crown returns for a seventh season online as one of the most comprehensive handicapper’s scouting reports of the 3-year-old scene. Posted each Friday at DRF.com from Jan. 6 through the Belmont Stakes, Countdown keeps you apprised of the rising stars of the 3-year-old class from the maiden ranks through the Grade 1 stakes. You can access daily updates and interactive features at Countdowntothecrown.com as well.

This year’s edition of the El Camino Real Derby on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields pits the classy shippers Daddy Nose Best and Lucky Chappy against the local Jerry Hollendorfer-trained pair of Russian Greek and the filly Lady of Fifty.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer John Servis and jockey Stewart Elliott, who swept Oaklawn’s series for 3-year-olds in 2004 with eventual Kentucky Derby winner Smarty Jones, will make their first Arkansas appearances in several years Monday.

Servis has sent Adirondack King in from Florida for the Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest Stakes, the first major prep on Oaklawn’s road to the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby. As of Wednesday, there were 21 probables for the Southwest, a one-mile race that could be split into two divisions.

Liaison, winner of the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park in December who lost his rider in midstretch of his 3-year-old debut here in the Robert Lewis Stakes on Feb. 4, worked a half-mile in 47 seconds Wednesday.

Liaison worked in company with Gator Warrior, who was timed in 47.80. For Liaison, the half-mile workout was his first since the loss in the Lewis Stakes and was second-fastest of 24 works at the distance.

“I worked him without blinkers, and he worked really well,” trainer Bob Baffert said.

WHO’S HOT

It’s usually the first question anyone asks Lynn Whiting when they meet him and find out he’s a racehorse trainer: “Have you ever won the Kentucky Derby?” Fortunately, he can answer yes.

Twenty years ago, Whiting achieved the dream of every trainer when he won the Derby, with the longshot Lil E. Tee, who gave another local favorite of Kentucky, Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day, his lone win in America’s greatest race. Day has long since retired, but Whiting, now 72, is still making the rounds at the barn, every morning.