Here’s what you may have missed “At the Races” on Thursday …

• Following a couple of Senate recruitment setbacks for both parties this week, Shira Toeplitz posted a timeline of when candidates announced their Senate bids in the 2012 cycle for comparison.
• Kyle Trygstad looked into whether former Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., will jump into South Dakota’s open Senate race now that Democrat Rick Weiland announced his candidacy. It wouldn’t be the first time Herseth Sandlin and Weiland have faced off in a primary.
• Missouri state  Speaker Pro Tem Jason Smith, a Republican, released his first ad in the special election to fill former Rep. Jo Ann Emerson’s seat.
• The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched a new program to cultivate strong candidates in targeted districts for 2014. The DCCC has tapped eight Democratic candidates for the program so far.

What we’re mulling on Thursday …

• The National Republican Congressional Committee announced a new program, “Red Zone,” to target House Democrats in traditionally GOP districts. These targets include: Reps. Nick J. Rahall II of West Virginia, John Barrow of Georgia, Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, Collin C. Peterson of Minnesota, Jim Matheson of Utah, and Ann Kirkpatrick and Ron Barber of Arizona.
• Texas Rep. Ralph M. Hall, the 90-year-old Republican first elected to Congress in 1980, announced he will run again in 2014. Hall holds the record as the oldest-serving member of Congress.
• Rahall made his re-election plans official.