ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trip Aces is descending from maiden-special company, and Big Screen Boss is stretching out to an appropriate distance. They look like the protagonists in Thursday’s sixth race for Ontario-sired and $40,000 maidens going 1 1/16 miles on the Tapeta at Woodbine.

Trained by Mark Casse for owner Gary Barber, Trip Aces made all eight of his starts in the maiden-special ranks, beginning Jan. 4 at Gulfstream. His best of four races there during the winter was a troubled third in a two-turn maiden special on the Tapeta on Feb. 1.

A five-day race week at Churchill Downs begins Wednesday with a nine-race card that has big fields, if little fanfare.

A pair of auction-restricted, $92,000 maiden special weight races for juveniles sold or bought back for $65,000 or less in their most recent sale highlight the card. They are joined by a trio of starter-allowance races, with purses of $60,000, $76,000, and $83,000, respectively.

Several of the nine races have drawn overflow fields – including both maiden races, with 15 entrants (12 may start). The average field size is 10.6 entries.

After his win in Saturday’s Louisville Thoroughbred Society at Churchill Downs, Bentornato is likely to train up to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 1 at Del Mar, giving him seven weeks between races.

That’s okay. He can handle the gap.

Bentornato was making his first start in more than 10 months on Saturday. Prior to that, he finished second in the 2024 BC Sprint at Del Mar. He was on his toes Saturday, sitting just off pacesetter Skelly and responding when called upon, pouring it on for a 5 1/4-length victory.

Fresh off claiming his fourth consecutive leading rider title, and seventh overall, at the summer Saratoga meet, Irad Ortiz Jr. moved his tack from New York to Kentucky for the fall season. Unsurprisingly, the five-time Eclipse Award winner is off to a strong start at the Churchill Downs September meet that began last Thursday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sovereignty, the leading 3-year-old in the country and a Horse of the Year contender, was expected to return to the work tab over the weekend as he prepares for a start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.

Bill Mott, the trainer of Sovereignty, said at Belmont Park on Friday morning that Sovereignty would likely work at Saratoga on Saturday morning. It would be his first work since his 10-length win in the Travers on Aug. 23. Sovereignty will enter the BC Classic having won the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, Jim Dandy, and Travers in succession.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Book’em Danno, the leading male sprinter in the country, returned to the work tab on Thursday, going an easy half-mile in 50 seconds at Monmouth Park, but trainer Derek Ryan said no decision has been made on where the New Jersey-bred gelding will make his next start.

“We haven’t really figured it out, probably in another week or two,” Ryan said.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With a race under her belt and now back on her favorite surface, the New York-bred Moonage Daydream looks well prepared to step back into open company in Sunday’s $150,000 Athenia Stakes at Aqueduct.