When Be Your Best finished a well-beaten third Saturday at Saratoga after running out to a big lead in the Flower Bowl Stakes, her trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr., praised the way the mare was ridden. For her best chance, Be Your Best needed to press her advantage as the race’s lone speed horse. Well, here we go again. The Joseph-trained No Mo Candy can control the pace Thursday at Kentucky Downs in the $500,000 One Dreamer Stakes. And it might behoove jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. to let the filly rock and roll.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Saturday’s Pacific Classic day program at Del Mar showed an increase in attendance and handle compared to 2024, according to figures released by the track.

Del Mar drew an ontrack crowd of 13,342 compared to 12,494 in 2024. The attendance was the highest of the decade, but well below 20,686 in 2019, the last running of the Pacific Classic before the pandemic.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Gimme a Nother, a two-time Group 1 winner in South Africa in 2024, will attempt to win for the first time in North America in this Saturday’s Grade 2 John C. Mabee Stakes at Del Mar.

Considering Gimme a Nother’s game performance in the Grade 2 Canadian Stakes at Woodbine on July 20, a second-place finish by a head as the even-money favorite, trainer Graham Motion said over the weekend that he believes she can achieve a breakthrough win.

“I thought she was a little unlucky and ran a good race,” he said.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Formidable Man, winner of Saturday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Mile, and two other turf stakes this year, is unlikely to race again until the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

“We’ll take it day by day,” trainer Michael McCarthy said on Sunday. “Maybe we won’t run until the Breeders’ Cup Mile. We’ll keep our options open. I think he’ll be very effective off a nine-week gap.”

If Formidable Man starts in the BC Mile, he will risk an unbeaten six-race record on the Del Mar turf since he won his debut in a maiden race here in September 2023.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Tandhoneywithane possesses the highest recent Beyer Speed Figures in Thursday’s nominal feature at Woodbine. Whether or not she will take to the grass is the question handicappers must ponder when she makes her first turf start in the nonwinners-of-two inner turf event for Ontario-sired runners and $40,000 claimers.

Tandhoneywithane was claimed for $40,000 on June 28 by trainer Mike Mattine for owner Carlo D’Amato. A month later, the 3-year-old moved up to open nonwinners-of-two allowance company and finished a respectable third with a career high 70 Beyer.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y – Todd Pletcher has enjoyed a highly successful summer at Saratoga with his 2-year-old crop, winning 15 races – including three turf stakes entering the final three days of the meet. On closing-day Monday, Pletcher takes two shots at capturing the biggest juvenile prize of the meet on dirt when he sends out Ted Noffey and Emphasis in the Grade 1, $300,000 Hopeful Stakes.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The $135,000 Saranac has the honor of being the final stakes race of the 2025 Saratoga meeting on Monday. It also might be as good a betting event as any that preceded it on this summer’s stakes schedule, bringing together a full and evenly matched group of a dozen 3-year-olds who have not won a graded stakes this year going 1 1/16 miles on turf.

There are two $100,000 stakes at Del Mar on Monday, but the star of the holiday matinee may be Full Serrano, who runs in an allowance race at a mile.

Full Serrano has not raced since he won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at 13-1 at Del Mar last November. He sustained an injury last December that ended hopes of a start later that month in the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes at Santa Anita, as well as a trip to the $20 million Saudi Cup in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

Full Serrano, trained by John Sadler for Hronis Racing, resumed workouts in early July.

Caldwell Luvs Gold returns to Finger Lakes on Monday for the $50,000 Arctic Queen, a six-furlong race for New York-bred fillies and mares, off a solid year competing against both her fellow statebreds and open company.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Artemus Citylimits will try to prove his 19-1 upset in the $150,000 Vice Regent Stakes wasn’t a fluke when contesting the featured conditioned allowance on holiday Monday at Woodbine. The five-furlong inner turf dash lured five others and goes as the fifth race on a nine-race card.