Ninetyprcentmaddie might have run his best race many moons ago, but a change in approach could breathe new life into the 5-year-old gelding in the Storm Cat Stakes at Parx Racing on Friday. For the first time since November, Butch Reid will stretch him out to a route, revisiting old suspicions the trainer had during Ninetyprcentmaddie’s 3-year-old campaign.

It’s time for Disco Time to get down – or at least get back on the dance floor.

The unbeaten Grade 3 winner will make his first start since January on Friday in the $250,000 St. Louis Derby at Fairmount Park.

He will start as one of the top contenders in the 1 1/16-mile race that drew 11 but will lose morning-line favorite Chunk of Gold, who instead will run Saturday in the Bourbon Flight at Churchill Downs.

The best Ohio-bred 2-year-old this year might be Kontiki, a filly who is out of town on Friday to run at Presque Isle Downs. A pair of fillies who have finished behind her in stakes over the summer, Dynamic Vision and Dunn’s River, figure as major candidates in the $75,000 Loyalty Stakes for Ohio-accredited juveniles on Friday at Belterra Park.

Dynamic Vision, the morning-line favorite at 3-1, and Dunn’s River are among four fillies lining up to face the boys in a full field of 10 in the six-furlong Loyalty, one of two stakes on the program.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Despite persistent declines in the foal crop and stagnant handle figures for the U.S. racing industry overall, yearling prices at the bellwether Keeneland September sale have soared this year, with all sales figures on track to easily break last year’s records when the 12-day sale concludes Saturday.

Those gaudy figures have been produced just one month after two Fasig-Tipton sales in upstate New York – one for so-called “select” yearlings and the other for New York-bred horses – produced similarly spectacular results, setting records across the board.

Ms. Tart was claimed for $35,000 out of a win at Gulfstream Park in January. Since then, she has earned nearly $200,000 for owner Nathan McCauley and has won two stakes, including a first graded stakes score for trainer Kevin Rice.

Ms. Tart comes into Friday night’s Grade 2, $300,000 Presque Isle Masters as one of the headliners after winning the local prep.

“The owners picked her out, and they asked me about her and wanted to send her back here if she was good and kept running,” Presque Isle-based Rice said. “Everything just kept working out.”

The flood of winning favorites gradually slowed during opening week at Los Alamitos, but another wave of chalk is expected when the second week of the two-week daytime meet begins Friday.

Favorites won 7 of 8 on opening day, Sept. 12, and 13 of 26 during opening week. The 50 percent win rate is higher than the historical 40 percent win rate of favorites at the all-dirt Los Alamitos September meet, while field size opening week expanded to a healthy average of 7.85 horses per race.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Alley Oop Johnny won’t have to chase the speedy Peja Du around when he runs back in a week in Friday’s sixth race at Woodbine, where he should be prominent in the wide-open $25,000 claiming race.

An eight-time winner in 48 starts, Alley Oop Johnny won 3 of 9 outings last year under a variety of conditions. The 8-year-old has continued to run competitively, but the bottom line is he’s winless in nine races this year while displaying hanging tendencies at times.