ARCADIA, Calif. – Mokat grew up nicely during the Del Mar autumn meeting last year. The filly beat maidens in her first start on turf and at a mile Oct. 31 and was second to Family Meeting in the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes at a mile on turf Nov. 28.

Mokat runs in Friday’s seventh race at Santa Anita, an optional claimer at a mile on the main track. She could stay on dirt if she runs well.

Trainer Richard Baltas said he is worried about what the track will be like because of recent rain.

“I wish it wouldn’t be an off track,” Baltas said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – With division leader Nyquist weeks away from a start, trainer Doug O’Neill has ample time in January to run several of his other 3-year-old prospects.

On Saturday at Santa Anita, O’Neill plans to have three starters in the $100,000 Sham Stakes at a mile – Found Money, Sorryaboutnothing, and Semper Fortis. O’Neill is holding Frank Conversation out of the race in favor of the $100,000 California Derby at Golden Gate Fields on Jan. 16.

“It’s a good bench behind Nyquist,” O’Neill said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Of the eight projected runners in Saturday’s $200,000 San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita, Hard Aces is the only Grade 1 winner in Southern California in 2015.

His upset win in the Grade 1, $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita in June defined the season for Hard Aces. He later finished sixth in three consecutive Grade 1 races – the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita, and the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Oct. 31.

Paul Espinosa Jr., the new announcer at Charles Town, which begins its 2016 season Thursday, realizes what a great opportunity he is being given. At age 26, this will be his first job as a race-caller.

The hiring of Espinosa also seems like a pretty good deal for Charles Town. Espinosa grew up nearby and has been attending the local races as often as possible since he was about 11. He cares deeply about the track and its people and seems like a perfect fit for the job.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs officials on Tuesday released the stakes schedule for their 2016 spring meet, with the most notable change being the renaming of the former Firecracker Handicap in honor of Wise Dan, the Horse of the Year in 2012 and 2013.

The Wise Dan remains a Grade 2, $200,000 race for 3-year-olds and upward on the turf, with its distance now lengthened from a mile to 1 1/16 miles. It has been moved from closing weekend of the meet to the June 18 Stephen Foster card.

There was no press release when one of the most productive jockey-trainer combinations in Southern California quietly dissolved in late 2015.

Rafael Bejarano has ridden only three horses for Jerry Hollendorfer since November. The last winner for the pair was more than two months ago on Oct. 24. The apparent split is notable at Santa Anita, where Bejarano and Hollendorfer have been the most productive jockey-trainer team over the past three winter meets combined, with 58 wins from 157 starters.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Saturday was an awesome day in the local 3-year-old division, with Awesome Banner cruising to a convincing and popular victory in the Grade 3 Hutcheson Stakes and Awesome Speed doing likewise in the one-mile Mucho Macho Man. However, it appears that neither will come back in the first major 3-year-old race of the meeting, the Grade 2 Holy Bull, later this month.

Tom Amoss will have a 3-year-old in the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 16 at Fair Grounds – that he knows. But whether that horse is Mo Tom or Harlan Punch won’t be decided until later this week, Amoss said Monday.

Mo Tom, whose close third in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes took on a new shine when the race’s runner-up, Mor Spirit, returned to win the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 19, worked five furlongs in a bullet 1:00 on Monday, his strongest workout since he began training at Fair Grounds in December. Mo Tom, Amoss said, worked behind two other horses.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The multiple stakes-winning New York-bred mares La Verdad and Willet are expected to race once or twice more before heading to the breeding shed in a few months.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Flexibility, a 4 1/4-length winner of the Grade 3 Jerome Stakes last Saturday, could stay on the New York road to the Kentucky Derby, according to trainer Chad Brown.

The Grade 3, $250,000 Withers on Jan. 30 will be considered for his next start.

“There’s a good possibility we’ll keep going forward with him on the New York trail,” Brown said Monday. “He’ll be considered for the Withers. He seems to be in real good form right now. I’m happy with him where he’s at. I don’t see any reason to move him.”