Somelikeithotbrown, the favorite for the $75,000 John Battaglia Memorial at Turfway Park on Friday night, is not the only 3-year-old grass runner trainer Mike Maker will test on a different surface this month. Maker intends to shift two-time turf-stakes winner Henley’s Joy to dirt for owner Bloom Racing in the Feb. 16 Risen Star at Fair Grounds.

After retiring from race-calling in March 2016, Mike Battaglia returned several times to call races from the Turfway Park booth, where he was the announcer for 43 years. Both visits came for the John Battaglia Memorial, a race named in honor of his late father, the general manager at the track in the 1970s, when Turfway was known as Latonia.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Battle of Midway, the winner of the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita last Saturday and five other stakes, is targeting the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 30, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Wednesday.

“My owners are pointing for Dubai’s big race,” Hollendorfer said.

The Group 1 Dubai World Cup is run at 1 1/4 miles and would equal the longest race in Battle of Midway’s career. Battle of Midway was third, beaten 7 3/4 lengths by Always Dreaming, in the 2017 Kentucky Derby.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Spiced Perfection, the winner of the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, was purchased privately earlier this week and has joined trainer Peter Miller’s stable.

Spiced Perfection was previously trained by Brian Koriner for Dare to Dream Stable. Miller said Spiced Perfection was bought by Adam Wachtel, Peter Deutsch, and Len Schleifer.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Knicks Go surely will be favored Saturday when the Sam F. Davis Stakes is renewed at Tampa Bay Downs, but one of the more compelling reasons to fade the speedy gray colt is this: Todd has one in there against him.

So Alive, a winner in two of three career starts, all for trainer Todd Pletcher, will be making his stakes debut as one of the chief threats to Knicks Go in the Grade 3, $250,000 Sam Davis. The 39th running of the Sam Davis is the lone qualifying points race (10-4-2-1) toward the Kentucky Derby this weekend.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Graded stakes winner Gift Box is not the only John Sadler trainee pointing to the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 9. Sadler said Wednesday that second-level allowance winner Campaign would join his more-accomplished stablemate in the 1 1/4-mile Big Cap.

“He’s a Curlin out of a Dynaformer mare – he wants to run all day,” Sadler said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The front-running mare Fahan Mura does not know she finished last in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational on Jan. 26. Fahan Mura returned to her California base two days after the Pegasus and is doing so well that trainer Vladimir Cerin already has targeted her next start.

“I was going to let her down, and then bring her back up, but she’s jumping out of her skin,” Cerin said this week at Santa Anita. “We’re pointing to the Buena Vista.”

Fahan Mura is likely to face Vasilika in the one-mile Buena Vista for fillies and mares on Feb. 23.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – A question Oaklawn Park horseplayers are facing on a regular basis this meet is whether Norm McKnight trainees will successfully transition to dirt. Many of the horses in his barn have little or no experience on dirt tracks after spending the bulk of their careers racing on either synthetic or turf surfaces at Woodbine.

McKnight made his way to Oaklawn for the first time a year ago and finished seventh in the local standings with 16 wins from 80 starts. He’s back again for the new meet and has brought more than double the number of horses he did last year.

Still Having Fun had a full and rewarding 3-year-old season, racing from January to December while making 11 starts at seven different racetracks. He began 2018 with back-to-back stakes wins at his home base of Laurel Park, won the Grade 2 Woody Stephens in June on the Belmont Stakes undercard, and polished off his campaign with a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Malibu at Santa Anita.

Late Night Pow Wow has not had a recorded workout since her easy victory in the Jan. 12 What a Summer Stakes at Laurel Park, but she is doing well and on track to make the Grade 3, $250,000 Barbara Fritchie Stakes on Feb. 16, according to trainer Javier Contreras.

Late Night Pow Wow, who is stabled at Charles Town, has won eight straight races since last June and is 10 for 11 in her career, with victories in the Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks and the Willa On the Move Stakes at Laurel.