Heavy Breathing, who remained perfect in two starts after winning a 1 1/16-mile allowance race here last weekend, will be pointed for one of the upcoming graded stakes for 3-year-olds later this spring, according to trainer Todd Pletcher. Heavy Breathing is owned by Jack Wolf’s Starlight Partners.

“I’ve sat down and talked to Jack and we’re knocking around a lot of options, including the Spiral at Turfway Park,” said Pletcher. “The synthetic surface makes a lot of sense for him since he’s by Giant’s Causeway and has worked well on the turf.”

More than anybody, trainer Mark Casse was anxiously awaiting Wednesday’s post position draw for Saturday’s Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby. After all, his Prospective had been parked out wide in each of his previous two starts this winter at Tampa, including the Grade 3 Sam Davis, in which he finished second after racing very wide throughout.

When informed Prospective had drawn the rail in a full field of a dozen 3-year-olds entered for the 1 1/16-mile Tampa Bay Derby, all Casse could do was let out a little laugh.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Bodemeister has replaced Fed Biz on trainer Bob Baffert’s team for Saturday’s $300,000 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita, a race that will clarify the Hall of Famer’s approach to the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 7.

WHO'S HOT

In the 28 times the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile has been run since 1984, only once, with Street Sense, did the winner also come back six months later and take the Kentucky Derby. Only four other Derby winners – Spend a Buck, Alysheba, Sea Hero, and Mine That Bird – even ran in the Juvenile.

Fed Biz, an impressive allowance race winner, will miss the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday, trainer Bob Baffert said Wednesday.

“I had a little setback with him, not bad, though,” Baffert said. “It’s nothing serious.

“I don’t know if he got cast or what. He tied up a little on me.”

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Sabercat, the winner of the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot in his last start Nov. 19, will make his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2, $500,000 Rebel at Oaklawn Park, said his trainer, Steve Asmussen. The 1 1/16-mile race is on March 17.

Asmussen said Monday that Corey Nakatani has the mount. The horse was to have flown into Arkansas from Southern California this week. Sabercat, who is owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds, had also been under serious consideration for the Grade 2 San Felipe at Santa Anita on Saturday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The problem with Blingo last fall was never an issue of ability.

He won his career debut in a one-mile turf race at Hollywood Park on Thanksgiving weekend and finished a fast-closing sixth in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity in December, his only other start.

But he was something of a goofball, trainer John Shirreffs says, tough to train.

“He’s a gelding for a reason,” Shirreffs said last weekend.

The talented Blingo is on the Triple Crown trail for a reason, too.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The third-place finish by Rousing Sermon in the Grade 2 Robert Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 4 led to a pep talk between owner Larry Williams and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.

The colt had been a fast-closing second in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park in December, and there were high expectations for his first start of 2012.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said that in light of Hansen’s easy victory in Saturday’s Gotham, he is now more inclined to bring his top Derby contender, Alpha, back in the Grade 1 Florida Derby here at Gulfstream Park on March 31 rather than await the Wood the following weekend in New York. Alpha won both the Count Fleet and Grade 3 Withers earlier this winter at Aqueduct. McLaughlin brought him back to Palm Meadows to continue training following the Withers.