Nominations were released Friday afternoon by Churchill Downs officials for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks, and most of the leading 3-year-old fillies in the country are on a roster of 106, led by reigning divisional champion Vequist.

Other leading names include Clairiere, Travel Column, Simply Ravishing, and Malathaat. Late nominations for $1,500 can be made by April 10, and supplemental entries of $25,000 also can be made at entry time.

Todd Pletcher and Ken McPeek lead trainers with the most nominations with nine and eight, respectively.

A new childcare facility that serves the families of backstretch workers will open this summer at Saratoga, the Belmont Child Care Association announced Friday.

Faith’s House, a 4,300-square-foot childcare center, will be located on the Oklahoma side of the Saratoga backstretch. It is named in honor of the mother of Michael Dubb, who, along with his wife, Lee, funded the facility. Michael Dubb is the founder and board chairman of the BCCA and helped finance and build Anna House, a childcare facility that opened in 2003 on the Belmont Park backstretch.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Beginning with the Belmont Park spring/summer meet that begins April 22, the New York Racing Association will no longer permit horses 10 years of age and older to race at its tracks.

The house rule was not officially announced, but appears in the Belmont condition book and on the stall applications for that meet.

According to Keith Doleshel, the racing secretary at Aqueduct and assistant racing secretary at Belmont and Saratoga, it was a rule borne out of equine safety and welfare.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The field for next Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes remained a work in progress a week out, with only four horses considered definite and a few other fringe players under consideration.

The Gotham lost one expected starter on Friday when trainer Wesley Ward said One Fast Cat, a debut winner at Turfway Park on Feb. 4, would not make the race. Though One Fast Cat worked five furlongs in 1:02.60 at Keeneland on Friday, Ward said the horse missed too much training and will now be pointed to the Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct on April 3.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Funny Guy came out of his last-place finish in the Grade 3 General George Stakes at Laurel Park on Feb. 20 with an injury and has been retired, trainer John Terranova said Friday.

Terranova said Funny Guy suffered “a small fracture” in his left knee that would heal given time, but “to get back to the level he’s been running at probably wouldn’t happen,” Terranova added.

The Grade 2 Del Mar Derby in 2018 was the start of a four-race winning streak for Ride a Comet. It would have been impossible to predict the second win of the streak would come more than two years later.

Ride a Comet is scheduled to try and stretch his win streak to five in the Grade 1, $400,000 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf at Santa Anita on March 6.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dayoutoftheoffice was a notable absentee from the Davona Dale lineup Saturday at Gulfstream Park, but trainer Tim Hamm said not to count out the filly from the April 30 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. Dayoutoftheoffice, second as the pacesetter in the Nov. 6 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in her most recent start, has not breezed since Jan. 24 but “will be working in the next few days” at Tampa, said Hamm.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The colt named Soup and Sandwich will get his shot at making the Kentucky Derby after passing a simple test in an allowance race Wednesday at Tampa Bay Downs.

Soup and Sandwich, a gray Florida-bred by the red-hot sire Into Mischief, faced just two opponents in what amounted to little more than a paid workout when getting a mile and 40 yards in 1:39.65 with jockey Antonio Gallardo up. He earned an 80 Beyer Speed Figure, which followed an eye-catching Jan. 28 debut in a 6 1/2-furlong Gulfstream maiden race that resulted in an 89 Beyer.

Indiana Grand will run 40 stakes worth $3.65 million during its 2021 race meeting, the racino announced in a release Thursday.

During an abbreviated 2020 racing season, Indiana Grand hosted 34 stakes worth $3.2 million.

The stakes schedule tilts heavily toward Indiana-bred and Indiana-sired racing; 26 of the 2021 stakes are of this restricted variety and two more are so-called “sales stakes,” another type of heavily restricted contest.

Monmouth Park has scheduled its richest stakes race, the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell, for a July 17 card featuring four other graded stakes races, including the Grade 1 United Nations, the track announced on Friday.