ARCADIA, Calif. – The journal is full again, with notes and opinions from Santa Anita to Golden Gate to Fair Grounds and back home to Santa Anita. Flightline’s return uncertain Flightline’s setback – a strained hock – is not common. Therefore, trainer John Sadler will not speculate when Flightline might return to training. “It’s not an everyday occurrence,” Sadler said. “It’s nothing bad, but it’s a little unusual. It might be a week; it might be two weeks. It’s nothing big. Will he make the Met Mile? We don’t have an answer.” Flightline will be monitored at Santa Anita while X-rays are evaluated by outside veterinarians. Answers later this week at the earliest. Stay tuned. :: Win big at Santa Anita: Get DRF Past Performances, Picks, Clocker Reports and Betting Strategies.  Maldonado’s patient ride Edwin Maldonado’s ride on Blackadder in the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields is another example that Maldonado is not all about sprint speed. His patience and strength are increasingly evident in routes. Maldonado said it took a while for Blackadder to settle, but he managed to get the colt to relax in seventh place, setting up a winning rally. “It was tricky,” Maldonado said. “[Blackadder] got tough and I thought, ‘What a nightmare.’ Then he relaxed, and I said, this is where I want to be.” Blackadder waited, split rivals, rallied inside, and won going away. “It took a little bit of luck,” Maldonado said. The past four months, Maldonado is 11 for 51 in routes. None of his winners was the favorite. Mackinnon gets a break Speaking of the El Camino Real, runner-up Macknnon will be turned out 45 days, the stakes winner’s first break since his career began last May. “He really hasn’t had a breather,” trainer Doug O’Neill said. “We’re going to kick him out at the farm, freshen him up, come back and focus on a summer campaign on turf.” Grass also is in the future for notable Santa Anita maiden Got Thunder, the beaten favorite in three starts on dirt, including in a race last week. The $750,000 Arrogate colt is a sibling to multiple Grade 1 turf winner Heart to Heart. Got Thunder’s trainer John Sadler said, “I’m going to put him on turf.” Pyfer’s ‘biggest supporter’ A touching moment at last week’s Eclipse Awards ceremony was the heartfelt acceptance speech by outstanding apprentice Jessica Pyfer, 23. She fought back tears dedicating the award to her “biggest supporter,” grandfather Bob Alexander, who died in January after contracting COVID. He was 78. “Every day after I rode, I’d get a text from him,” Pyfer said days after the ceremony. “He was always watching.” Pyfer, whose mother, Sherri, is an exercise rider married to trainer Phil D’Amato (Pyfer’s stepfather) acknowledged the challenge as a journeyman rider. “Coming out of your bug with the decrease in horses, it’s difficult,” she said. The personable Pyfer won 59 races last year; she is 1 for 30 this year. Hernandez saves the day Now that it’s over, trainer Craig Lewis and jockey Juan Hernandez can laugh about a near-disaster last Friday at Santa Anita. Prior to the first race, Lewis implied Stone’s River was a virtual lock. He told the rider, “You’re going to gallop on the lead.” As Hernandez later recalled: “I was in the gate, thinking about what [Lewis] said, and thought – yeah, he’s a cinch unless I fall off. And I almost did!” Stone’s River stumbled badly and nearly unseated Hernandez. Miraculously, the rider stayed on, and Stone’s River ($3.20) wired the field. The replay is worth watching. Never in doubt. Awake At Midnyte dream filly Is stakes-placed California filly Awake At Midnyte entered in the right race on Saturday at Fair Grounds? She faces fillies in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra, rather than colts in the Grade 2 Risen Star. Kidding aside, trainer Doug O’Neill described Awake At Midnyte: “She looks like a colt; she’s a beast. She looks like a Russian swimmer.” Awake At Midnyte enters her 3-year-old season with high expectations, even by O’Neill’s upbeat standards. “If she stays injury-free, she could have a heck of a year,” he said. O’Neill, owner Paul Reddam and jockey Mario Gutierrez team with Slow Down Andy in the Risen Star, but the filly Awake At Midnyte might be special. KJC up 3-0 vs. BC Juvenile It’s a surprise the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs already produced three graded winners (Classic Causeway, White Abarrio, Call Me Midnight) while the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile has been unproductive. Since the first Breeders’ Cup in 1984, the Juvenile has produced six Kentucky Derby winners and eight runners-up. During that time, the Kentucky Jockey Club produced one Derby winner, and one runner-up. :: For the first time ever, our premium past performances are free! Get free Formulator now! Saturday at Fair Grounds, KJC winner Smile Happy runs in the Grade 2 Risen Star. Meanwhile, 2021 BC Juvenile runners are a combined 0 for 8. The zero-win total is the same number of published works by Corniche since he won the BC Juvenile. Wipe that chalk off your face! This might be a statistical anomaly, but worth noting: Nine-furlong turf races run this winter at Santa Anita have been curiously predictable – favorites are 11 for 15. If the gelding Cosmo runs as expected in the third race Friday, “chalk up” another. The meet-long win rate for favorites holds at 42 percent, which is the same as last week’s 11-for-26 win rate. Nine of the 26 races last week included an odds-on favorite and six of them won. Bye Bye Bertie carries the load When she won a starter allowance Feb. 12, Bye Bye Bertie became the first horse this winter at Santa Anita to win three races. Her ambitious campaign has included two wins in eight days, Jan. 9 and 17. Trainer Leonard Powell said he was confident she could handle the rigorous schedule. “Within three days she was back to her weight” – 1,120 pounds – “from before the race, so I had no concern,” he said. Bye Bye Bertie is 6, and a bit of a brute. “She’s tough; she’s quite bossy,” Powell said. “She can act like a colt.” Claimed for $40,000 last summer, Bye Bye Bertie has won four races and $110,300 from five starts since. She is 10 of 22 in her career. Got Koko for the sweep This date in Santa Anita history: Twenty years ago, on Feb. 18, 2002, an inexpensive maiden filly who was bred in Texas finished third in her career debut. The following year, Got Koko became the last horse to sweep Santa Anita’s prestigious (since discontinued) La Canada series for 4-year-old fillies. Got Koko, a $30,000 yearling who won four graded stakes in a 7-for-15 career, was trained by one of California’s greatest horsemen, Bruce Headley, who died Jan. 15, 2021, at 86. Headley’s low-budget, all-star graded winners included Kona Gold, Bertrando, Street Boss, Surf Cat, and Kalookan Queen. Four-stakes weekend The four-day racing week at Santa Anita, Friday through Monday, includes four holiday weekend stakes. Early contenders for the $100,000 Pasadena Stakes, for 3-year-olds at a mile on turf Saturday, include Don’t Swear Dave and Sumter. Nominees to the Grade 3 San Simeon, for older horses on the hill on Sunday, include Barraza and Beer Can Man. Brickyard Ride is nominated to the $100,000 Tiznow Stakes for Cal-breds on Monday, but with Flightline sidelined, the Grade 2 San Carlos on March 5 might be more appealing. Alice Marble and undefeated Becca Taylor are nominated to the $100,000 Spring Fever for Cal-bred filly-mare sprinters Monday.