HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Fog shrouded the opening three furlongs of Dialed In’s final major prep for the Grade 1 Florida Derby on Thursday morning at Palm Meadows. But it was clear to see from the way the Holy Bull winner Dialed In finished down the stretch why trainer Nick Zito was smiling from ear to ear after the work.

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NEW ORLEANS – The pace scenario is in his favor, he already has a win over the track, and he looked great the second time he went past the stands when galloping Thursday morning here at Fair Grounds. For Mucho Macho Man (click link for Contender Profile), the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby on Saturday looks like a slam dunk.

FLORENCE, Ky. – Springtime, and the dreaming is easy. Horsemen have flocked to Turfway Park with the notion that if you can just sneak one in here Saturday by winning the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes, anything could happen six weeks later in the Kentucky Derby.

“One day, we’re going to come back there and win the Derby, and I’m going to raise that trophy over my head like [Bob] Baffert does,” said trainer Doug O’Neill, laughing, but perhaps only half-kidding.

FLORENCE, Ky. – Positive Response was assigned post 2 as the lukewarm morning-line favorite in a full field of 12 3-year-olds entered Wednesday night in the Grade 3, $500,000 Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes, to be run Saturday at Turfway Park.

Positive Response, based in Northern California with trainer Billy Morey, was a seven-length winner of the John Battaglia Memorial at Turfway and remained here afterward. He will be ridden back by Julien Couton.

Trainer Jinks Fires already has one 3-year-old in a good position to make the Kentucky Derby in Archarcharch. After the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby on Sunday, he hopes to have another. Fires will send out Supreme Ruler in the 1 1/8-mile race, which drew a field of 11 when entries were taken on Wednesday.

Garrett Gomez will ride Silver Medallion in the Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby on April 9, trainer Steve Asmussen said Wednesday.

Silver Medallion won the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields in his last start, with Russell Baze aboard. Since then, a majority interest in Silver Medallion was sold, but Asmussen has remained his trainer.

Should Silver Medallion win the Santa Anita Derby, he would be in line for a $5.5 million bonus if he could also capture the Preakness Stakes.

FLORENCE, Ky. – By finishing fourth as a 13-1 shot in his only start in a graded race, Thirtyfirststreet hasn’t justified any of his owners catching Kentucky Derby fever.

But that all could change Saturday at Turfway Park, where Thirtyfirststreet, a California-bred colt trained by Doug O’Neill, will be part of a wide-open field of Derby aspirants in the 40th running of the Grade 3, $500,000 Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes.

Billy Morey amassed more than 1,000 wins in less than a decade during a remarkably swift rise among the ranks of North American trainers. Based in Northern California, Morey ventured out of town for one of his more notable victories a few weeks ago, and on Saturday, he will try for his greatest yet when sending out Positive Response in the $500,000 Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

Losing a Kentucky Derby hopeful is never easy, although in some cases, it can be reasoned away. George and Lori Hall recently sold Sweet Ducky to foreign interests for “a lot of money,” according to their private trainer, Kelly Breen, in a move primarily intended to maintain a semblance of fiscal feasibility in their multi-million dollar Thoroughbred operation.

“In a way, it’s a shame because we had a horse that could go a distance and was all set to have a big spring,” Breen said. “But when you can turn a profit, you need to turn a profit.”