Channel Maker, expected to be honored as America’s champion older turf male, is aimed toward two grass races this winter in the Middle East. Co-owner Adam Wachtel said the gelding will race once in Saudi Arabia followed by another race in Dubai.

Bruce Headley, a longtime California trainer whose most famous runner was champion sprinter Kona Gold, died Jan. 15 at age 86 from the effects of a stroke.

The legendary D. Wayne Lukas, 85, has returned to Oaklawn, his winter base for more than a decade, after recently losing another one of his longtime prominent clients in an era of horses going to other trainers, declining foal crops, and COVID-19.

Alwaysmining, winner of last year’s Jennings Stakes at Laurel Park, enters the Jan. 16 contest for new trainer Austin Trites.

Grade 2 winner and multiple grade 1-placed Shancelot will be available for inspection at Buck Pond Farm in Versailles, Ky., on Friday, Jan. 22.

Dave Litfin looks at five stakes Jan. 15, including the Lecomte and Silverbulletday.

Prominent Peruvian owner/breeder Boris Schwartzman, who lost four stallions more than a year ago during a brutal invasion of his farm, is rebuilding his breeding and racing operation in Kentucky.

The closing session of the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale kept buyers on the edges of their pavilion seats until the last moments Jan. 14 as the final racing and stallion prospects consigned to the four-day sale went through the ring.

After five years as chief operating officer/chief financial officer of the Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium, Tom Valiquette will take a step back from some of his COO duties, but will continue to maintain an important executive leadership role.

Louis J. Ulman and H. Neil Glasser’s Kenny Had a Notion, beaten a neck in the Dec. 26 Heft Stakes, takes on eight rivals in the Jan. 16 $100,000 Spectacular Bid Stakes for 3-year-olds at Laurel Park.