Mike Welsch

Barbara D. Livingston Honor Marie (foreground) works five furlongs in company with Agoo on Thursday. They went their first three furlongs in a rapid 35.15 before Honor Marie eventually took charge. CHURCHILL DOWNS Thursday, April 25

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Sierra Leone turned in his penultimate work for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga, breezing five furlongs in 1:02.53 in company with Domestic Spending, per Daily Racing Form. Shortly thereafter, trainer Chad Brown announced that Flavien Prat would replace Tyler Gaffalione aboard the Kentucky Derby runner-up in the final leg of the Triple Crown.

No matter how you slice it, one would be hard pressed to side against Big Effect in Sunday’s allowance feature at Gulfstream Park. The six-furlong dash is restricted to 3-year-olds and offers a purse of $61,000.

Barbara D. Livingston Beaute Cachee (right), longshot winner of the Jenny Wiley, works with Chili Flag in preparation for the Just a Game. They will be joined by three other Chad Brown-trained runners in Friday's seven-horse field.

If first impressions mean anything, longtime Southern California mainstays Drayden Van Dyke and Kent Desormeaux may be calling South Florida home before very long.

Gulfstream Park has canceled Saturday’s racing program “out of an abundance of caution” following several days of heavy rain that flooded the local community, including areas of the racetrack property and a portion of the barn area.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Oversubscribed benefitted from a torrid pace duel between her stablemate Chantilly Road and the highly regarded Macanga, finishing best of all down the center of the course to register a popular 3 3/4-length victory over Vino Rouge in Saturday’s $150,000 Wild Applause Stakes at Aqueduct.

After Gabaldon finished second a week ago at Royal Ascot in the Windsor Castle Stakes, winning an allowance race at Gulfstream Park may pale in comparison for trainer Jose D’Angelo. Although if form holds true, that’s exactly what is likely to happen in Thursday’s $61,000 main event, to be decided at a mile and one-sixteenth over the Tapeta course, with D’Angelo sending out the two morning-line favorites, K. C. Chief and Spy Hunter.

Tom Keyser Sibelius wins the Pelican Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs for the second year in a row in February. The Smile will be his first start since the Golden Shaheen in late March.

Comedy Town, a synthetic and turf specialist throughout the first 24 starts of his career, has found a new home on dirt, registering his second win in as many tries over the surface after rallying to a 1 1/4-length victory over Run Classic in Saturday’s $120,000 Smile Sprint at Gulfstream Park.