LEXINGTON, Ky. – It’s spring, allegedly, in Kentucky, but you can’t tell by sight nor feel. The final spasms of winter’s grasp will make for an uncomfortable opening weekend at Keeneland, where a slew of major stakes will be run amid unseasonable cold and intermittent rain.

The 16-day spring meet opens Friday with Analyze It as a heavy favorite in the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes – although it’s not certain the race will remain on turf, since rain and a high temperature of 48 are in the forecast.

Mike Repole has seen the change in the Thoroughbred ownership game over the last several years, and instead of trying to fight it, he’s embraced it.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Terra Promessa, who won four stakes races Oaklawn Park, has been retired, according to her trainer, Steve Asmussen. He said she has returned home to the Kentucky operation of her breeder and owner, Stonestreet Stables.

Terra Promessa retires with a record of 7 wins from 16 starts for earnings of $920,350. She is a 5-year-old by Curlin – the two-time Horse of the Year who raced for Stonestreet and was trained by Asmussen – and she is out of the multiple stakes-winning mare Missile Bay.

Turf racing is back on at Evangeline Downs.

The Opelousas, La., track opens Wednesday night with a rejuvenated turf course after the surface was closed down for much of last season due to maintenance procedures that took longer than anticipated. The first races over the turf will come at the end of April or the first part of May, said Chris Warren, director of racing for Evangeline.

“The quality of the turf course should be the best it’s been in years,” he said. “We’ve been working diligently for the last year with our consultant.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Hall of Famer Bob Baffert is well positioned to win the training title at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, which ends Sunday.

Through last Sunday, Bob Baffert led with 31 wins, one more than Peter Miller, who had two wins on Sunday. Richard Baltas was third with 28 victories.

Miller cannot catch Baffert, and could be passed by Baltas.

Miller began a seven-day suspension Monday for displaying aggressive or abusive behavior toward a stable employee in an incident at the San Luis Rey Downs training center last September.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Paved, a 3-year-old filly by Quality Road, laid the groundwork for an outstanding 2018 season with wins in her first two starts this year.

A victory in a maiden race on turf for fillies Jan. 6 was followed by a win as the 2-1 favorite in the El Camino Real Derby against males on the Tapeta track at Golden Gate Fields on Feb. 17.

Plans are uncertain for the first four finishers from Saturday’s Group 1, $10 million Dubai World Cup, but fifth-place Forever Unbridled is headed for a date with the stallion Medaglio d’Oro in Kentucky.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Todd Pletcher won the only two races he was in on Sunday to cap a meet at which he won 69 races and captured his 15^th straight Gulfstream Park trainer's title.

Pletcher, who won his record fifth Florida Derby on Saturday with Audible, finished 33 wins ahead of Jorge Navarro and Mike Maker, who finished tied for second with 36.

ARCADIA, Calif. – After finally getting a chance to see McKinzie for the first time in a week, assessing his status, and looking at the calendar, trainer Bob Baffert on Monday morning here at Santa Anita said it was “not looking good” for McKinzie to make the Kentucky Derby on May 5 at Churchill Downs.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Coach Rocks came out of her victory in Saturday’s Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks in good order and left South Florida on Sunday for Churchill Downs, where she will make her next start in the Kentucky Oaks on May 4.

Coach Rocks, who won her maiden on the lead, had a more difficult trip in the Gulfstream Oaks, racing in seventh position early before having to make a wide bid in the final three furlongs.