A couple weeks ago the Fair Grounds racing office was anticipating a large field, maybe 10 or 11 horses, for the $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 26, but recent defections from the race have pushed the projected number of starters down to barely half that number.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The tempo of Oaklawn’s series for 3-year-olds will quicken Saturday, when speedsters The Factor and Sway Away invade from Southern California for the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel.

But awaiting them is J P’s Gusto, a former California resident who is proven at the pace of racing out west. He defeated Sway Away by a half-length in the Grade 2 Best Pal last summer, then, one start later, was a front-running winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity.

Garrett Gomez has picked up the mount on To Honor and Serve for the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on April 3, his agent, Ron Anderson, said Wednesday.

John Velazquez had ridden To Honor and Serve in his first start of the year, a third-place finish in the Fountain of Youth Stakes.

Sweet Ducky and Gourmet Dinner, two of the prominent members of this year’s 3-year-old class, may be off the Kentucky Derby trail, but for completely different reasons.

Sweet Ducky on Tuesday was purchased by Ramzan Kadyrov, the controversial president of Chechnya, in order to run in the United Arab Emirates Derby on March 26. Kadyrov uses Herman Brown as his trainer, and Kelly Breen, the former trainer of Sweet Ducky, said Tuesday that Brown had contacted him in regards to Sweet Ducky.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark.- Despite a record in which he has won two stakes in four career starts, Archarcharch finds himself needing a big effort Saturday in the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel at Oaklawn to be looked upon as one of the nation’s top 3-year-olds. And he probably won’t be the favorite in the 1 1/16-mile race that serves as a springboard to the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby.

Watch Me Go, the Tampa Bay Derby winner, was not an original nominee to the Triple Crown for a $600 fee in January. But his trainer, Kathleen O'Connell, said he was nominated for the late fee of $6,000 on Sunday.

KENTUCKY DERBY NEWS: Track all the 3-year-olds on the Triple Crown trail

"None of us are getting any younger, and who knows if we'll ever have another chance," O'Connell said.

O'Connell said Watch Me go "came out of the race great."

Positive Response has won five of eight, and he took the $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial Stakes by seven lengths in his most recent start.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Mike Repole watched the replay of the Timely Writer Stakes for about the 15th time while surrounded by family and nearly 50 friends in his suite located high atop the grandstand here early Saturday evening. And his Uncle Mo looked just as impressive winning the race the 15th time around as he did the first.

OLDSMAR, Fla. –When the blue-collar types take on the blue-bloods of racing, the blue-bloods usually come out on top.

But once in a while David topples Goliath and such was the case last Saturday in the Grade 2, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby when locally based Watch Me Go and Crimson Knight raced previously undefeated Brethren into defeat down the lane, then battled to the wire together before the 43-1 Watch Me Go emerged with a neck win in one of the biggest upsets in the 31-year history of Tampa Bay Downs’s premier race for 3-year-olds.

While still leaving a little wiggle room for Uncle Mo to run in the Florida Derby on April 3, trainer Todd Pletcher on Monday said it was still most likely that Uncle Mo would have his final prep for the May 7 Kentucky Derby in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 9.