HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Brad Cox will be at Gulfstream Park for the Eclipse Awards next Thursday night (Jan. 24), so it didn’t make much sense for him to make the long round-trip journey here from his Midwest base this Saturday, too. Cox will be busy anyway Saturday at Fair Grounds, and he’ll be keeping an eye on the simulcast signal at Gulfstream Park, where Big Changes will carry the Steve Landers silks in the $150,000 Sunshine Millions Turf.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Mike Machowsky plans to train through mid-February before he disbands his stable to become the California-based representative for Fasig-Tipton Sales, he said on Wednesday.

Fasig-Tipton announced Machowsky’s hiring on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Machowsky said he has about 10 horses to run in the next month from his 23-horse stable.

“Hopefully, I’ll win a couple and go out in style,” he said. “I’ve got another month to train.”

The Maryland Jockey Club is offering stakes incentives to Grade 1 winners throughout 2019.

With the exception of the Preakness Stakes, Grade 1 winners within 12 months of a stakes will have their entry and starting fees waived. Additionally, Grade 2 winners within the last 12 months who start in the $150,000 Bald Eagle Derby or $200,000 Laurel Futurity on Sept. 21 will have their entry and starting fees waived.

The Bald Eagle Derby is a 1 1/2-mile turf race for 3-year-olds. The Laurel Futurity is a 1 1/16-mile turf race for 2-year-olds.

At tracks with year-round racing, jockeys can get pigeonholed and need to change circuits to find fresh opportunities. That certainly has been the case for Jorge Vargas Jr. and Luis Ocasio, who rode at Parx but are now finding success elsewhere.

Vargas, 23, rode at Parx from 2013 through 2017. He finished third in the standings in 2015, fourth in 2016, and sixth in 2017. When Trevor McCarthy moved to New York a year ago, Vargas teamed up with McCarthy’s longtime agent, Scott Silver, and began riding in Maryland full time.

The format of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championships has been tweaked this year to increase horsemen’s participation by consolidating the series into five event days. In 2018, the races were spread out over 14 racing programs.

The MATCH Series, which was held last year for the first time since 2001, will consist of four divisions, one fewer than a year ago. Each division will have five $100,000 stakes, with horses earning points based on their finishing positions. Total purse money up for grabs is $2 million.

Longtime Ontario trainer Jerry Lavigne died on Jan. 4 when just six days shy of his 90th birthday, according to a release put out by Woodbine’s Tom Cosgrove.

After retiring as a jockey, Lavigne began his training career in 1958. He won the Queen’s Plate twice, initially in 1970 with Almoner, who gave jockey Sandy Hawley his first of four victories in the historic race. He also won it in 1982 with the front-running Son of Briartic, who defeated subsequent Travers winner Runaway Groom.

NEW ORLEANS – The exciting 4-year-old sprinter Mitole’s comeback is on temporary hold while he gets over what his connections hope and believe is only a minor setback.

Mitole hasn’t started since he rocketed to a 6 1/4-length win in the Chick Lang Stakes about eight months ago and came out of that race with a broken splint bone that required rest to heal. Mitole returned to the work tab Nov. 28 at Fair Grounds and was on a steady breeze schedule for trainer Steve Asmussen through Dec. 24, but hasn’t worked since.

NEW ORLEANS – Diane Pfister does equine therapy work and generally lends a hand in trainer Wayne Catalano’s string at Fair Grounds. Speaking of hands, Pfister’s left one sported a bandaged finger Monday morning.

“I lost part of my pinkie,” she explained. The wound’s source, a flashy chestnut with a mischievous eye, stood in the adjacent stall, having just digested several peppermints surely more satisfying than human flesh.

“I’ve had a lot worse happen. And it’s easier to take when it’s a good horse.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jorge Navarro knew coming into the 2018-19 championship meet that he faced a Herculean task trying to unseat perennial Gulfstream Park leading trainer Todd Pletcher after a 15-year reign. But one month into the session it’s been so far so good for Navarro, who held a 19-15 advantage over King Todd entering Wednesday’s card.

A pair of older geldings seem to be improving with age and over the weekend both Stoney Bennett and Stan the Man showed the ability to stretch out in distance.

On Saturday, the 4-year-old New York-bred Stoney Bennett successfully carried his speed a mile, winning an open-company, first-level allowance race by a neck. He ran a mile in 1:37.62 and earned a 94 Beyer Speed Figure.