ARCADIA, Calif. – It was a busy Saturday for Kentucky Derby candidates at Santa Anita.

Journalism and Citizen Bull posted final drills for the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 5, while Rodriguez looked super and is expected to run the same day in either the Grade 1 Blue Grass at Keeneland or Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Baeza, the well-bred maiden winner, also worked Saturday as the Santa Anita Derby field takes shape. Five of the eight nominees are likely to run including Barnes, whose final workout is scheduled for Monday.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The redemption road, and, potentially, the road to the roses runs back to Keeneland for East Avenue. On Saturday morning, the colt, a Grade 1 winner at this track, turned in his final piece of work for next Saturday's Grade 1, $1.25 million Blue Grass Stakes, breezing a half-mile in 47 seconds flat.

Trainer Tim Bellasis is running two-thirds of his stable at Santa Anita on Saturday and Sunday.

The team numbers only three horses and by the end of the weekend Bellasis may be down to two horses after Union Wave runs in the fifth race on Saturday, and Acero starts in Sunday’s fourth race. Both race in $5,000 claimers.

The claiming crowd has their eyes on one, he said.

“I hear I might lose one of them,” he said on Friday. “That’s what I’ve been told.”

Two years ago, Spirit of Makena was in peak form in sprints at Santa Anita, winning consecutive starts in graded stakes, including the Grade 3 San Carlos Stakes.

On Saturday, Spirit of Makena is back in the $100,000 San Carlos at seven furlongs for his first start in 18 months. The San Carlos can show whether the now 7-year-old Spirit of Makena will be a factor in California’s sprint division.

“I hope he surprises me, but he’s been off for a year,” trainer George Papaprodromou forewarned on Thursday. “He might need the race.”

The Del Mar summer meeting is slightly less than four months away, but close enough to weigh on the mind of trainer Jonathan Thomas.

Thomas, who has won three stakes at the current Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, will have a full-time presence at Del Mar this summer for the first time. In the last few weeks, Thomas has been in Kentucky, where he has a home. He will remain there for much of April, seeking to build his California stable. The West Coast division currently numbers 12.

The Grade 1, $750,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes has been added to the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series as a “Win and You’re In” event. It becomes the fourth such Woodbine race to earn that distinction, along with the Woodbine Mile, Summer, and Natalma Stakes.  

The new designation offers the E.P. Taylor winner a fees-paid berth into the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf on Nov. 1 at Del Mar, a race won by Taylor runner-up Moira last year.    

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jockey Tyler Gaffalione will be out indefinitely after he suffered a broken left ankle as a result of an incident prior to the start of Wednesday’s fourth race at Gulfstream Park, his agent Matt Muzikar said. 

Gaffalione, the second-leading rider at the Gulfstream winter meet, was booked to ride all 14 races on Saturday’s Gulfstream Park card, including Madaket Road in the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby. Mike Smith will instead ride Madaket Road in that race for  Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, according to Muzikar.