Alpha figures to be the strong favorite in Saturday's Grade 3, $200,000 Withers Stakes for three year olds. He has a surface advantage, having taken the $150,000 Count Fleet over the Aqueduct track last month.

The $200,000 Strub Stakes over 1 1/8 miles for 4-year-olds at Santa Anita on Saturday features Grade 2 San Fernando winner Tapizar, who will go favored. He easily won the San Fernando on the front end last time, beating Balladry and Prayer for Relief by about 3 1/2 lengths, who will take him on one more time.

Tampa Bay Downs, one of Thoroughbred racing's bigger success stories over the last several years, kicks off its road to the Kentucky Derby with the Grade 3, $225,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes.

Algorithms, who handily defeated champion 2-year-old Hansen while making his Stakes debut in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park, has moved to the head of the class of 2012 Kentucky Derby contenders, according to the latest future odds provided by Wynn Las Vegas.

The Grade 2 Strub Stakes, the third and final leg of Santa Anita's Strub Series for 4-year-olds, is set for Feb. 4. Among those slated to compete in the 65th Strub Stakes is Tapizar, who took the second leg of the Strub Series with a comprehensive victory in the 1 1/16-mile San Fernando Stakes on Jan. 14.

With its position on the New York racing calendar moved up this year from late April, the historic Withers Stakes is once again a key prep race for horses with Kentucky Derby aspirations.

The Southern California trail to the Triple Crown is typically a fertile one. Numerous winners of Triple Crown races have prepped in the Golden State, so watching races such as the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Feb. 4 is a must watch.

Teddy's Promise likely will go to post favored in Saturday’s $300,000 Grade I Santa Monica Handicap at seven furlongs on dirt. She has won three straight including the Grade 1 La Brea last out which she won convincingly by 2 ¼ lengths.

Undefeated Hansen will face just five horses Sunday at Gulfstream Park in the $400,000 Holy Bull Stakes, including top contenders Algorithms and Consortium who both exit the same allowance race in which they finished first and second, respectively.

The road to the Kentucky Derby gets underway in earnest at Gulfstream Park with the Grade 3, $400,000 Holy Bull Stakes on Jan 29. The 2012 edition of the one-mile contest will feature the sophomore debut of Hansen, last year's Eclipse Award winner as champion 2-year-old male and one of the early favorites for the Kentucky Derby.