Steven Crist

12:55 pm: Five minutes to post for the first of a dozen races at Aqueduct, the 10th of them being the $1 million Wood Memorial Stakes. Here's the lineup, and I'll be filling in results as the afternoon unfolds.

1:20 pm: It's a cloudy Florida Derby Day here at Gulfstream Park, with black clouds rolling over the ocean but so far only a few sprinkles of the "spotty showers" in the forecast. The latest meteorological entrail-reading calls for some mid-day rain, but the dirt is fast and the grass firm, with three races in the books and 11 to go, culminating with the $1 million Florida Derby slated to go as the 14th race at 6:48 pm. Here's the lineup, and I'll be filling in results as the afternoon goes on, and on:

 HALANDALE, Fla. -- Here are the 17 Eclipse Award winners that were announced at Gulfstream Park  Saturday night, ranked in order of the percentage of the vote each winner received in his or her division. There were 249 ballots cast but abstentions in many categories including 52 in the steeplechase division and 29 in the voting for apprentice jockey:

11:15 am: There's a two-day, $93k pick-6 carryover at Aqueduct for today's New Year's Eve card, and because it's the last day of 2013, the whole pool will be paid out whether or not anyone goes 6 for 6. That, in addition to a final chance to make a little score to improve one's 2013 parimutuel balance sheet, makes it worth a look. I'll be playing.

The Saturday column ( www.drf.com/news/steven-crist-will-take-charge-follows-rarely-taken-path-championship ) discusses the remarkable turnaround of Will Take Charge's 2013 campaign, which is about to be rewarded with a Champion 3-year-old Eclipse Award and is even garnering him some support for Horse of the Year, despite his distant finishes in all three Triple Crown races.