America’s Best Racing’s Bob Ehalt handicaps the Risen Star Stakes.

Owner Mick Ruis Sr. is reducing stock and is considering selling the Blackwood Stables training center as well. He bought the training center last October but said now he needs a “bit of a break” from breeding and racing.

Grade 1 winner Timberlake registered his fifth breeze Feb. 16 since resuming training for Brad Cox at Fair Grounds Race Course. Timberlake is scheduled to make his sophomore debut in Oaklawn Park’s Rebel Stakes (G2) Feb. 24.

Locked, one of the early favorites for the May 4 Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs, breezes a half-mile in :49.68 Feb. 16 at Palm Beach Downs, his first workout since Jan. 28 for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher.

Mick Ruis Sr. said he is considering selling the Blackwood Stables training center as well. He bought the training center last October but said now he needs a “bit of a break” from breeding and racing.

A foal study in the United Kingdom suggests that periods of 24-hour turnout, as well as larger paddocks, may decrease injury rates and musculoskeletal disease.

Off to the Races Radio powered by The Racing Biz will make its 2024 debut Feb. 17 at 10 a.m. The one-hour radio show, which is presented by the Virginia Equine Alliance, returns for its 26th season.

In a case remaining from the state-to-state regulation of controlled medication, trainer Linda Rice has ended her regulatory appeal of a 14-day suspension tied to a phenylbutazone positive from January 2023.

With several of Japan’s top dirt runners set to contest the $20 million Saudi Cup a week later, the Feb. 19 February Stakes back home is left with a mixed bag of prospects, surface-switchers, and invaders from the National Association of Racing.

Gold Square’s Instant Coffee, an early contender on the Kentucky Derby (G1) scene last winter before his sixth-place finish in the Louisiana Derby (G2), makes his return to the races in a second-level allowance contest Feb. 17 at Gulfstream Park.