Smooth Like Strait, winner of the Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile last Saturday at Santa Anita and three other turf stakes in 2020, will have his 2021 debut in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile against older horses on March 6.

Trainer Michael McCarthy said Smooth Like Strait has received an invitation to the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational on Jan. 23 at Gulfstream Park, but that a California-based campaign through the winter and spring has more appeal.

“I’m definitely going to wait,” McCarthy said. “That is the plan.”

The Grade 3 Sham Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on Saturday at Santa Anita has a projected field of five, all in search of their first stakes wins.

Life Is Good, winner of a maiden special weight race at 6 1/2 furlongs by 9 1/2 lengths in his debut Nov. 22 at Del Mar, will be favored against fellow maiden race winners Medina Spirit and Parnelli. Waspirant and Uncle Boogie, who have had mixed results in stakes, are the other expected runners.

Bob Baffert trains Life Is Good and Medina Spirit.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There will be a mandatory payout of the Empire 6 pool each racing day in January, the New York Racing Association announced Tuesday.

The entire pool, minus the 20 percent takeout, will be paid out to those who select the most winners in the sequence on the wager, typically offered on the last six races of the card. The Empire 6 is a wager with 20-cent minimum bet.

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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Happy Farm, the 2019 Grade 3 Fall Highweight winner, will make his first start in 10 months and first for Linda Rice when he runs in Saturday’s $100,000 Gravesend Stakes going 6 1/2 furlongs.

Happy Farm finished second by a head to Firenze Fire in the 2019 Gravesend before running second to Mind Control in the Grade 3 Tom Fool Handicap here on March 7.

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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Brooklyn Strong, the Grade 2 Remsen winner, will most likely make his next start in the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct on Feb. 6, trainer Daniel Velazquez said Wednesday.

Whoa Nellie came out of her decisive victory Saturday in the $75,000 Joseph E. “Spanky” Broussard Memorial Stakes in good condition, and if all goes well will start next in the $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 31 at Sam Houston Race Park.

“Everything seems good on her,” trainer Larry Jones said Monday. “She’s already made it back to Oaklawn Park and we’re penciling in the Houston Ladies Classic.”

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Mystic Guide’s preparation for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup hit a snag last week when the 3-year-old colt spiked a temperature, said trainer Michael Stidham.

“He’s doing well now, and he’s been temp-free the last three days,” Stidham said. “He was coughing a little and must have caught a little virus.”

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The jockey Angel Suarez executed to perfection the plan to get Pixelate to the winner’s circle in the Woodchopper Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds. One race later, Suarez’s plans for the winter went badly amiss.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Boosted by record handle on Saturday’s opening day, Santa Anita showed a 14.1 percent increase in all-sources handle for the first two days of the season compared to corresponding days in 2019.

Saturday’s 11-race program handled $23,003,159, better than the previous record of $20,491,016 set in 2018 or $19,021,102 from last year. Saturday’s figure included ontrack handle of $290,813 from a small group of owners allowed to attend on days their horses are racing. The track is not open to the public because of the pandemic.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Chad Brown had his final California runner of 2020 on Sunday when Miss Teheran finished fourth in the Grade 3 Robert Frankel Stakes at Santa Anita.

The race honors the late trainer who played an influential role at the start of Brown’s career. Brown, 42, worked for Frankel before starting his own stable in the 2000s. Brown was honored with the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding trainer from 2016 to 2019.