ARCADIA, Calif. – Mor Spirit, the winner of the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity last month, worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 at Santa Anita on Thursday in advance of the $150,000 Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Feb. 6.

Trained by Bob Baffert, Mor Spirit races for Michael Lund Petersen and has won 2 of 4 starts and earned $288,400. He was second in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs on Nov. 28 in his stakes debut.

The Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes is run at 1 1/16 miles and is a prep for the $1 million Santa Anita Derby on April 9.

Due to the lingering effects of last weekend’s winter storm, Charles Town has canceled its Thursday, Friday, and Saturday cards this week and will instead race next Tuesday and Wednesday.

As of Thursday, the Charles Town track had not reopened for training since the storm.

The cards scheduled for Friday and Saturday will instead be held Tuesday and Wednesday. The races will not be redrawn.

The added race days next week mean Charles Town will race Tuesday through Saturday. Charles Town will have a new first post of 7 p.m. beginning Tuesday.

Horseplayers at the National Handicapping Championship in Las Vegas will be searching for value on the nine-race Friday card at Fair Grounds, where players can select optional races for mythical $2 win-place wagers. There are a few races with at least moderate appeal on the program, including the featured eighth race, so let’s take a quick look at the card from an NHC-slanted perspective.

Race 1 – A bottom-level Louisiana-bred maiden-claiming mile with just eight horses. Surely, horseplayers will want to feel out the track given the limited options available here.

Fox Hill Farms and trainer Larry Jones played a significant role in the Houston Ladies Classic becoming a graded stakes. The owner-and-trainer team shipped in for the inaugural edition in 2013 with Joyful Victory, at the time a Grade 2 winner who had placed in a trio of Grade 1 races. One start after her appearance at Sam Houston, Joyful Victory became a Grade 1 winner in the Santa Margarita.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There were few surprises when entries were drawn Wednesday for the Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park, with Mohaymen and Greenpointcrusader topping a field of six 3-year-olds set to go 1 1/16 miles Saturday in the first of two key prep races leading up to the $1 million Florida Derby on April 2.

After Noteworthy Peach’s six-length win in the Jennings Handicap at Laurel Park on Dec. 26, trainer Gary Capuano considered giving the then-3-year-old a freshening. He ultimately decided to keep the son of Read the Footnotes in training and has entered Noteworthy Peach in a third-level optional race Saturday.

Parx Racing began its winter break Dec. 23 and will resume racing Feb. 13. The track closed for training Jan. 3 and was scheduled to reopen last week following the installation of a new safety rail. The project has taken longer than planned, however, and last weekend’s snowstorm, which totaled 24 inches at Parx, also affected the time line.

“I think we will reopen for training between this Saturday and Monday,” said Sam Elliott, the director of racing at Parx.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While owner Sheila Rosenblum and trainer Linda Rice decide whether to race their champion female sprinter, La Verdad, again, their other stakes-winning New York-bred filly sprinter, Hot City Girl, returned to the work tab Wednesday morning.

Hot City Girl, the winner of the Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks and the runner-up in the Grade 1 La Brea on Dec. 26, worked five furlongs in 1:01.80 on the Belmont Park training track Wednesday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Two weeks ago, the Grade 1 winner Effinex was being strongly considered for the $10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan on March 26. He might alter course and make his seasonal debut in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 12 instead.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – More so than most trainers with a 3-year-old at this time of year, Jason Servis has reason to be thinking about the Kentucky Derby. But Servis has different goals when considering where and when to run his New Jersey-bred gelding Sunny Ridge.

“I like money, too,” Servis said. “The Derby’s the Derby. Sure, it’d be great, but we’re not desperate for it.”