Usually Wrong will attempt to remain unbeaten on turf Sunday, when he takes on 11 others in the new $250,000 Great West Stakes at Remington Park.

The five-furlong turf sprint for 3-year-olds and up makes its debut on the Oklahoma Derby Day card of eight stakes worth more than $1.3 million. The Great West was designed as a potential prep for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.

“That’s definitely on our minds, for sure,” said Robertino Diodoro, who trains Usually Wrong. “But as the old saying goes, one step at a time.”

Straight No Chaser, the champion male sprinter of 2024, has not raced in nearly six months. Trainer Dan Blacker is cool with that.

Returning from lengthy layoffs, and delivering top performances, does not seem to be a problem for Straight No Chaser, who will be favored to win Sunday’s Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship at six furlongs.

Last year, Straight No Chaser won the Santa Anita Sprint Championship after a break of more than four months and followed with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar nearly five weeks later.

While some bemoan the too-great number of tracks racing simultaneously in various regions, including the Midwest, trainer Mike Maker could use a few more venues to accommodate his legion of older-male turf horses.

Maker has middle-distance turfers, long-distance turfers, graded stakes grass runners, and older horses shuttling between high claimers and listed stakes. And, unsurprisingly, he has two entrants for the $150,000 Carey Memorial, featured race Sunday at Hawthorne and one of the most important races remaining on the skeletal Chicago circuit.

ARCADIA, Calif. – After they make two left turns Sunday at Santa Anita, undefeated Cavalieri and her highly accomplished stablemate Richi will go different directions this fall at Del Mar.

The Breeders’ Cup is just five weeks away, and the significance of the Grade 2 Zenyatta Stakes on Sunday at Santa Anita is clear, even though the 1 1/16-mile race drew only five entrants and does not include division leader Seismic Beauty.

Three horses entered in Saturday’s Grade 2 Woodward at Aqueduct will skip the prestigious race in order to run in the $200,000 Battery Park Stakes on Sunday at Delaware Park. This exodus could leave a three-horse field in New York while a fuller field of seven rivals are entered to round out the Sunday card in Delaware.

When Norm Casse cross-entered Awesome Aaron, he mostly did so to test the waters in the Woodward, a prevailing sentiment among the defecting trainers. When he saw the field, he realized that he would likely have the longest shot and backed off those plans.

A pair of runners coming off career efforts at Saratoga, a five-time stakes winner in from Canada, a local who boasts a 3-for-5 record at Remington Park, and a Grade 1-placed maiden make for an interesting renewal of the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby on Sunday.

The 1 1/8-mile race is the richest of the meet and will be showcased on a 10-race card that has a special afternoon post of 3 p.m. Central. There are a total of eight stakes making up the program, including the new $250,000 Great West Turf Sprint.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – King’s Plate runner-up Tom’s Magic has been waiting patiently for the anchor leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the 135th running of the $400,000 Breeders’ Stakes on Sunday at Woodbine. The American shipper should be favored in the 1 1/2-mile event for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, which will be run around three turns on the inner turf for this year only while the main course undergoes renovations.