ARCADIA, Calif. - Songbird was so far in front in the last furlong of the $300,345 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday that she was practically galloping on the lead.

The champion 2-year-old filly of 2015, Songbird extended her unbeaten record to five races with an easy win by 6 1/2 lengths in the one-mile race. The margin could easily have been measured in double-digits if jockey Mike Smith had urged Songbird in any capacity in the final furlong.

“It’s quite amazing that she can do that,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Sunday morning.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Options abound for Mor Spirit, who scored his second straight stakes victory on Saturday in the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita. He will have either one or two more preps before the May 7 Kentucky Derby, according to trainer Bob Baffert.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Reservations might be needed to get into this year’s Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn.

A large contingent of locals and Collected from the barn of Triple Crown-winning trainer Bob Baffert are among those anticipated for the 1 1/16-mile race on Feb. 15. Entries will be taken Friday, Feb. 12, and the number of starters will be capped at 14.

“I do expect a large field,” said Pat Pope, racing secretary at Oaklawn. “People are targeting this race.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Nyquist, the champion 2-year-old male of 2015, is likely to have few rivals when he makes his 3-year-old debut in the $200,000 San Vicente Stakes at seven furlongs Feb. 15.

Nyquist has not raced since winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland on Oct. 31. His rivals in the Grade 2 San Vicente are likely to include Exaggerator, who won the Delta Downs Jackpot in Louisiana last November; Denman’s Call, a maiden-race winner in his debut Jan. 9; and Rockin Bayou, a game second in an optional claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs on Jan. 3.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Beholder, the three-time champion, is making steady progress in daily gallops toward her first workout of the year.

Trainer Richard Mandella said on Friday that Beholder returned to training in recent weeks “bigger and stronger.” Owned by B. Wayne Hughes, Beholder, 6, was the champion older female of 2015.

ARCADIA, Calif. – When Danzing Candy drew away from eight rivals to win a first-level optional $80,000 claimer at a mile at Santa Anita on Thursday, trainer Cliff Sise took a moment to admire the performance.

“He’s got the stride of a good horse,” Sise said.

Danzing Candy’s record matches Sise’s belief. Danzing Candy has won 2 of 3 starts and is unbeaten at the current meeting. Owned by Ted Aroney’s Halo Farms and Diane and Jim Bashor, Danzing Candy beat maidens in a seven-furlong race Dec. 26, the opening day of the winter-spring meeting.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – While Mohaymen, the 2016 Holy Bull Stakes winner, continues along the Kentucky Derby trail, Upstart, the 2015 winner, has just begun really stretching his legs in preparation for what his connections hope will be a successful 4-year-old campaign.

Laurel Park will hold a fundraiser next Saturday for jockey Fray Martinez and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Maryland.

Martinez, 21, is being treated for acute myeloid leukemia in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Martinez won 83 races in the Mid-Atlantic between April 2014 and last May. He had 36 wins at Laurel and Pimlico and finished fifth in the 2014 Delaware Park standings. Martinez’s wife, Yelitza, is expecting their first child this spring.

Trainer Kieron Magee was presented with a nice piece of crystal last Saturday at Laurel Park to recognize his leading the Maryland Jockey Club tracks in victories last year. He can put it on the mantel next to his 2014 award in the same category.

Magee, a 55-year-old native of Ireland, has been training since 2007 after working for many years as an exercise rider, primarily as a freelancer at Pimlico.

“I got on the ones nobody else wanted, and I have the pains to prove it,” Magee said. “It was just ‘show me the money.’ I had a lot of fun. Pimlico was always my place.”

NEW ORLEANS – Winning the Keith Gee Memorial last Sunday on turf, the 3-year-old colt One Mean Man, trained by Bernie Flint, provided the most recent success stemming from the mating of the stallion Mizzen Mast and the mare Abbeyville Miss.

Flint and partner Ron Hillerich own and bred One Mean Man, who has won 2 of 8 starts and earned $80,705. He’ll race next in the Black Gold Stakes on Feb. 27, Flint said.

The name is misleading, Flint said, because One Mean Man isn’t mean.