CYPRESS, Calif. – California Chrome continued his preparation for 2016 with a sharp five-furlong workout in 1:01 at Los Alamitos early Saturday morning.
The workout was typical of California Chrome’s Saturdays in the last month – a series of pre-dawn exercises, increasing in intensity each week and leaving trainer Art Sherman satisfied with the progress of the 2014 Horse of the Year.

California Chrome returned to Sherman’s stable in October after a three-month break. The $150,000 San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 9 is a likely first target.

The Grade 1, $200,000 Southwest Juvenile Championship for Quarter Horses, Zia Park’s final stakes of the meet, has drawn one of the top 2-year-olds in training in Bv Midnite Express.

Zia Park, in Hobbs, N.M., closes out its meet Dec. 15. The circuit in New Mexico then moves to Sunland Park, which opens Dec. 18 and races through April 19.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Traditionally a mid-winter fixture on the local stakes schedule, the Grade 3 Rampart has found itself a new home on the Gulfstream Park calendar. It’s now the first graded stakes during the 2015-16 Championship Meet and will be contested for the 36th time here next Saturday.

The Rampart is one of four stakes on a card that also includes the Harlan’s Holiday, South Beach, and El Prado. The Harlan’s Holiday serves as a prep for both the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope on Jan. 9 and the Sunshine Millions Classic one week later.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Unforgettable U will be pointed to stakes at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting after winning an optional claimer Thursday at Los Alamitos. The victory was the second in her last four starts.

Unforgettable U dueled on the lead with Windy Forecast for the opening quarter-mile before taking a commanding lead. She drew away from five rivals in the long stretch to win by 9 1/2 lengths, running six furlongs in 1:08.67.

Songbird, the undefeated winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland on Oct. 31, returned to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s stable at Santa Anita on Thursday after a month-long break at a Kentucky farm.

On Friday, Hollendorfer said Songbird will be pointed to stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita winter-spring meet, and that he is not planning to start her against males.

“We’re not going to run in the Kentucky Derby,” he said.

Trainer Todd Pletcher is getting ready to head to south Florida for the winter, but he will have plenty of horses to run in upcoming New York stakes.

Tommy Macho, 4 1/4-length winner of the Grade 3 Discovery here on Nov. 11, will make his next start in the $100,000 Queens County Stakes here on Dec. 19.

“Two turns and the timing, I thought, was good to possibly set him up for the Donn,” Pletcher said, referring to the Grade 1 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 6. “He seems to like a little bit of space between races.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – David Jacobson is going bi-coastal.

Already a force in New York, Jacobson plans to open a Southern California division when he sends about 20 horses to Santa Anita for the winter meet. Among the horses he will be sending is Salutos Amigos, a multiple-graded-stakes-winning sprinter who is targeting the Grade 3 Midnight Lute Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 2.

Jacobson will still maintain a 50-horse string in New York and will have 10 horses at Gulfstream Park.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – For horseplayers, winter in south Florida officially begins Saturday with the opening of the 2015-16 Gulfstream Park championship meet. The 90-day session runs through April 3.

Buoyed by the success of the recently concluded Gulfstream Park West meet, held eight miles west at the former Calder Race Course, as well as a horse population full to overflowing throughout the area and a record stakes schedule anchored by the $1 million Florida Derby, track officials are expecting another banner season. The weather, as always, will be key to the bottom line.

CYPRESS, Calif. – A California policy prohibiting inexperienced apprentice jockeys from riding 2-year-olds will prevent Rosie Higgins from riding in what would have been her first race on Saturday. The wife of Hall of Fame rider Kent Desormeaux, Higgins was named on the 2-year-old Sunny Truce in Saturday’s ninth race at Los Alamitos, but will not be allowed to ride because of a policy that requires apprentice jockeys to have five wins before they can ride a 2-year-old or a first-time starter, according to steward Luis Jauregui.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Sorryaboutnothing has yet to cross the wire in first place in two starts, but the promising colt will represent trainer Doug O’Neill in the $300,000 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 19.

Sorryaboutnothing finished second in a maiden race at 1 1/16 miles Nov. 15 at Del Mar, but was promoted to first after race winner Urlacher was disqualified for causing interference in the stretch. O’Neill said he saw enough from the performance to run Sorryfornothing in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity at 1 1/16 miles.