The morning-line favorites in both of Santa Anita’s feature races today are 4-year-olds primed to record their first wins at the stakes level.

Tirupati (Umberto Rispoli riding), 7-5 on the line for the Wilshire Stakes, can continue improving for trainer Jonathan Thomas against 6-year-old Uncorked (Antonio Fresu), 5-year-old Alpha Bella (Juan Hernandez) and four other fillies and mares.

Pilot Commander (Hernandez), 3-5 in the San Carlos Stakes for Bob Baffert after chasing Muth and Raging Torrent, must deal with the rail post as well as 6-year-old For All Mankind (Fresu), 5-year-old Fort Bragg (Kazushi Kimura) and 7-year-old Spirit of Makena, the 2023 San Carlos winner, in a field of five sprinters.

Two Baffert-trained 3-year-olds can qualify for the Kentucky Derby when they run in Grade I races at Oaklawn Park and Gulfstream Park today. In the Arkansas Derby, Cornucopian (John Velazquez), a $1.1 million son of Into Mischief with only an impressive maiden win behind him, is the 7-5 morning-line favorite against Sandman (Jose Ortiz), Coal Battle (Juan Vargas), Publisher (Flavien Prat) and five others. Cornucopian needs 100 points for winning or 50 for finishing second to guarantee a spot in the May 3 Derby. In the Florida Derby, Madaket Road (Mike Smith) is 7-2 behind 8-5 Sovereignty (Manny Franco) in a field of 10. Madaket Road has 31 points from stakes placings at Santa Anita and Oaklawn and should be among the 20 qualifiers with a fourth place or better.

The lineup for the April 5 Santa Anita Derby will be set Monday, with Journalism and Citizen Bull the likely stars of the Grade I race that awards 100, 50, 25, 15 and 10 points to the top finishers. Both Baffert’s Citizen Bull (60) and Michael McCarthy’s Journalism (47.5) already have the 40-plus points typically needed to get into the Kentucky Derby. The points standings are led by Tiztastic (119) and Final Gambit (100), winners of the Louisiana Derby and the Jeff Ruby last Saturday.

— Kevin Modesti

NBA

The Memphis Grizzlies parted ways with their winningest coach, Taylor Jenkins, with the team struggling down the stretch and at risk of losing home-court advantage for the postseason.

The franchise announced the decision Friday. Jenkins was in his sixth season as Memphis’ coach as the Grizzlies struggled on a West Coast trip.

Memphis lost the first two games at Sacramento and in Portland and still have games left at the Clippers, at Utah, and against the Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder before returning home March 29 to face the Lakers.

NHL

Martin Necas had two goals and an assist, Jonathan Drouin and Logan O’Connor also sored, and streaking Colorado beat the Kings 4-0 late Thursday in Denver.

David Rittich had 20 saves for the Kings, who had their four-game winning streak stopped.

Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby broke an NHL record for point-per-game consistency he shared with Wayne Gretzky during the Penguins’ 7-3 loss to the Sabres on Thursday night in Buffalo.

Crosby’s goal 8:49 in to cut Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 was his 80th point, to assure he’ll finish his 20th NHL season averaging at least a point per outing. The 37-year-old surpassed Gretzky, who finished all but his 20th and final NHL season in 1998-99 averaging a point a game.

GOLF

Scottie Scheffler opened with two straight birdies and was on his way in the Houston Open, tying the Memorial Park course record he set in 2021 with an 8-under 62 for a one-shot lead among the early starters Friday.

It was the most complete round of the year for Scheffler, who missed the first month of the season recovering from a glass puncture in his right palm that required minor surgery.

The only green he missed was on No. 2 — his 11th of the round — and he holed that from just inside 30 feet for birdie.

MISCELLANY

Novak Djokovic had some company for another Miami Open tennis victory.

With Lionel Messi watching from a suite, Djokovic cruised into the Miami Open final by routing 14th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 6-3 Friday.

The fourth-seeded Djokovic is trying for his seventh Miami Open title in his first appearance in the event since 2019. Djokovic, 37, who won six times at the tournament’s previous venue at Key Biscayne, also is going for his 100th pro title.

Next up for Djokovic is the winner of Friday night’s Taylor Fritz-Jakub Mensik semifinal.

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders received a contract extension through the 2029 season after turning around a downtrodden program in just two seasons.

The school said the extension increases Sanders’ yearly base salary to $10 million this year, making him the highest-paid football coach in the Big 12. The deal was reached with three years left on Sanders’ existing five-year, $29.5 million deal he signed when he was brought in from Jackson State.