As the 2024 Triple Crown concluded with a muddled picture among the three-year-old males, the door is open for a late bloomer.

Ballydoyle’s multiple Group 1 queen Warm Heart put an exclamation point on her career in Saturday’s Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1), defeating males in course-record time at Gulfstream Park.

Rigney Racing’s homebred Buchu blew past the field in Friday’s Jessamine (G2) at Keeneland, giving sire Justify yet another premier contender in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1).

The closing of Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 2 and the Kentucky Derby Sire Future Wager provided a burst of intrigue for Derby-focused horseplayers.

Sure to be voted champion two-year-old after his Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) victory, Forte will open Pool 2 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager (KDFW) on Thursday as the 10-1 choice among individual interests.

If C R K Stable’s Justique had been overturned as the favorite again in Saturday’s $101,000 Desi Arnaz S. at Del Mar, you might say she’d have “some splainin’ to do.” But the John Shirreffs juvenile rekindled the excitement of her debut win.

Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. swept both stakes for two-year-olds at Aqueduct on Sunday, piloting Champions Dream in the Nashua (G3) and Good Sam in the Tempted.

Gulfstream Park shippers turned the Ellis Park Derby/Audubon Oaks double on a stakes-laden Sunday in Henderson, Kentucky.

Triple Crown star Justify now has a second major stakes winner from his first crop, after Just Cindy stayed perfect in Thursday’s Schuylerville (G3) on opening day at Saratoga. Earlier, Tarabi captured the Wilton S. in the Spa’s first race using the restored Wilson Chute.

Triple Crown champion Justify got off the mark as a sire on Sunday at Santa Anita, the track that launched his meteoric racing career.