HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The decision to move the six-furlong Hutcheson Stakes up on the calendar from the middle of the winter gave horsemen a second option to go with the one-mile Mucho Macho Man for their 3-year-olds here on Saturday. And as a result, the races wound up splitting the available talent, with seven in each race and the Hutcheson getting the stronger of the two fields. The Grade 3 Hutcheson attracted the stakes winners Sheikh of Sheikhs and Full Salute along with the extremely promising Awesome Banner.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Smooth Roller, who missed the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Oct. 31 because of a tendon injury, will resume training in early April, trainer Victor Garcia said on Wednesday.

Smooth Roller was in training for the BC Classic when the injury was detected. Garcia said he expects Smooth Roller to return to racing in the second half of 2016.

“He’s still at the farm,” he said. “The way it looks, he could come back 100 percent.”

There are three stakes on Saturday’s program at Santa Anita, including the $200,000 Santa Ynez Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 6 1/2 furlongs and the $100,000 Midnight Lute Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Pretty N Cool, who won Grade 2 races at Del Mar and Belmont Park last year, and Treasuring, who was second in the Desi Arnaz Stakes at Del Mar in November, are part of the projected field for the Santa Ynez. Pretty N Cool and Treasuring were fourth and fifth in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos on Dec. 12.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Gender Agenda gave trainer Carla Gaines a successful start to the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting with an upset win in the Grade 3 Robert Frankel Stakes last Sunday. Gaines is poised for another potential upset in a stakes if Texas Ryano can run to his early-autumn form in Saturday’s $200,000 San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita.

Texas Ryano won the King Pellinore Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf Sept. 27 but struggled at Del Mar, finishing fifth in an optional claimer at a mile Oct. 30 and eighth of 14 in the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup on Nov. 26.

At least two of the winners of the three stakes races last Saturday at Fair Grounds could be headed out of town for their next starts, and while the third horse, Fila Primera, might run back in New Orleans, her connections think she could turn out to be better than the local stakes schedule in her division.

ARCADIA, Calif. – California Chrome, the 2014 Horse of the Year, is scheduled to work before the first race at Santa Anita on Saturday, trainer Art Sherman said on Wednesday.

California Chrome is being prepared for the $200,000 San Pasqual Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Jan. 9, and Saturday’s workout will be his final major exercise before that race.

A 5-year-old in 2016, California Chrome has not raced since finishing second in the $10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates last March. The same race on March 26 is a long-term goal.

This has been a breakout year for Jevian Toledo, who clinched his first riding title Thursday on closing day of the Laurel Park meet. Toledo also led the 2015 overall Maryland Jockey Club standings at Pimlico Race Course and Laurel in both victories and purse earnings.

Toledo has 178 wins and $5.2 million in earnings this year, with 141 of his victories coming at the two Maryland tracks. In 2014, he won 63 races on the Maryland Jockey Club circuit.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Greenpointcrusader, idle since finishing seventh as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, worked five furlongs in 1:02.65 at Palm Meadows on Monday. The work was the second for Greenpointcrusader since he was shipped to south Florida by trainer Dominick Schettino.

The winner of the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont Park, Greenpointcrusader was not among the 21 nominated for Saturday’s Mucho Macho Man, the first of three significant 3-year-old prep races leading up to the $1 million Florida Derby on April 2.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Wednesday’s main event is for 2-year-old fillies going a mile under optional-claiming conditions. The fourth race, it lured a field of 10 led by Smart Shopping, who rallied going seven furlongs over a sloppy track at Churchill Downs on Nov. 28 to win her only start.

Robby Albarado, who guided Smart Shopping to victory for trainer Brendan Walsh, will fly in to ride the daughter of Smart Strike on Wednesday.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. readily admits that 2015 was a bad year as far as he was concerned. He also called it the luckiest year of his life.

Those who know Plesa well understand exactly what he means.

Plesa has won just 37 races in 2015, his lowest yearly total since 1984. He also started fewer horses this season, 267, than he had in each of the past 30 years. Serious health issues kept Plesa from duplicating the kind of success he’s enjoyed on a regular basis since taking out his trainer’s license in the early 1980s.