ARCADIA, Calif. – Taiba on dirt and Balnikhov on turf are among the most conspicuous nominees (i.e., likely favorites) to six graded stakes scheduled for the Dec. 26 opening-day card at Santa Anita.

Nominations were released this week for the winter-meet opening day card that includes three Grade 1, $300,000 stakes and three Grade 2, $200,000 stakes. Taiba is the early favorite for the Grade 1 Runhappy Malibu at seven furlongs; Balnikhov likewise racing a mile on turf in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Mathis Mile. Both races are for 3-year-olds.

She’s All Wolfe, who established herself as an elite Oklahoma-bred with earnings of more than $750,000, has been retired, trainer Donnie Von Hemel said Tuesday.

She is based at Oaklawn Park and will soon ship to a Kentucky farm for her breeder and owner, Robert Zoellner.

“The decision was made just recently,” Von Hemel said. “We were toying with running her a time or two and this and that and when it came down to it, everybody was in agreement to retire her.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Today’s Flavor looks to be a future New York-bred stakes horse after following up his 8 1/2-length maiden win Nov. 27 with a similar front-running, 8 1/2-length victory Sunday in a first-level allowance race at Aqueduct. Both races were against statebreds.

Put on the lead by Manny Franco, Today’s Flavor extended his advantage at every call, running six furlongs in 1:11.23 and earning an 89 Beyer Speed Figure, one point higher than his maiden score.

Slow Down Andy, a three-time graded stakes winner who was third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 5 at Keeneland, will start in a sprint for the first time since the summer in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita.

Slow Down Andy was third at 17-1 in the BC Dirt Mile, finishing 1 3/4 lengths behind Cody’s Wish. Earlier this year, Slow Down Andy won the Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby at 1 1/8 miles in March after engaging in a speed duel. He won his turf debut in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby at 1 1/8 miles, leading throughout.

With an asterisk, Practical Move is a winner around two turns this year.

On Oct. 10 at Santa Anita, Practical Move finished second by 1 1/2 lengths in a maiden special weight race at a mile to Fort Bragg, who was disqualified from first for causing interference. The ruling put Practical Move in the winner’s circle.

Practical Move can prove he fits in top-level two-turn races when he starts in Saturday’s Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity at 1 1/16 miles.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Kazushi Kimura won his second straight Woodbine riding title when the 132-day meet wrapped up Sunday.

Kazushi Kimura, who took the last week of the meet off, won 152 races from 755 rides, and his mounts earned a meet-leading $8.9 million.

Rafael Hernandez ranked second with 122 wins. He missed the last two days of the meet after suffering broken ribs in a spill Friday.

Hernandez’s win on Fashionably Fab in Friday’s Shady Well Stakes made him the meet’s leading stakes-winning jockey by a 16-15 margin over Kimura.

Highly promising 2-year-old colt Extra Anejo has been taken out of training because of an injury, trainer Steve Asmussen reported on Sunday. 

Asmussen and the colt’s owner, Winchell Thoroughbreds, had hoped to make the Gun Runner Stakes on Dec. 26 at Fair Grounds with Extra Anejo, but a relatively minor injury has forced a change in plans. 

“He has a small chip in a hind ankle. It’s not ideal timing. The prognosis is good, but it’s not the timing anybody wants,” Asmussen said. 

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas was nursing five freshly fractured ribs on Thursday, but the pain could not dampen his excitement about Secret Oath.

The Kentucky Oaks winner, Secret Oath is set to return to the races next year at 4. She is in light training and will likely resume racing in March at Oaklawn.

“What we’ve done is a little bit of a tentative plan - penciled in, not in stone,” Lukas said Thursday. “We’re pointing her for the Azeri and the Apple Blossom. That will be her two outs here. We’ve got some time in front of us.”

Midnight Stroll, the Delaware Oaks winner, was credited with a six-furlong move in 1:14.60 Friday morning over the Belmont Park training track. She is preparing for a start in the Grade 1 La Break Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.

Midnight Stroll, working on the inside of Union Lake, went from the half-mile pole to the wire 48.70 seconds with a final quarter of 23.85 seconds. She went out five furlongs in 1:01.93 and six furlongs in 1:14.60.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After initially planning to wait until the Withers Stakes on Feb. 4 to run Arctic Arrogance again, trainer Linda Rice said this week she is now strongly considering running the Grade 2 Remsen runner-up in the $150,000 Jerome Stakes here on Jan. 7.

“I’m going to point to the Jerome,” Rice said Thursday. “Two months is too much time. I’ll the let horse make the decision, how he’s doing at the time. If I feel like he needs more time between races, I can wait for the Withers.”