ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Inner turf expert Wyoming Bill moves up in class off a nifty score on Thursday in a conditioned allowance/optional claimer at Woodbine, a 7 1/2-furlong race around two turns of the inner course.

Owned and bred by Sean and Dorothy Fitzhenry, Wyoming Bill has reached full bloom this year at 4 under the guidance of trainer Catherine Day Phillips. After missing the board in his season opener on the dirt at Keeneland, the beautifully bred son of Curlin dropped a nose decision in a seven-furlong allowance on the Tapeta here May 10.

Larry Rivelli trained 14 stakes winners in 2022 and 2023, then won four stakes during 2024 and three so far this year. That’s what happens when your home track – Arlington, in Rivelli’s case – shuts down.

Hawthorne, Rivelli’s main summer base now, has such a light stakes schedule that he has his first stakes runners there Sunday in a pair of turf sprints, including odds-on morning line favorite Nobals in the $100,000 Robert Molaro Memorial.

The trainer Wesley Ward won his first Colleen Stakes in 2015 and won his seventh in 2024. Yes, you read that right.

Ward entered three in this year’s Colleen, a five-furlong grass dash for 2-year-old fillies renewed Sunday at Monmouth Park, but only Pulstar will show up with a chance to give Ward his eighth Colleen.

Unraced Santina and turf sprint maiden winner Clowning Around will land in other spots, Ward said. Victor Espinoza rides Pulstar, a life-and-death last out maiden winner at Saratoga.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The speedy Friend Ofthe Devil zipped five furlongs in 59.70 seconds on Friday morning over the Saratoga main track in preparation for the $150,000 Cab Calloway division of the New York Stallion Series on turf on Aug. 14.

The move was a little quicker than trainer Carlos Martin was looking for as he hopes Friend Ofthe Devil will be able to ration his speed when he attempts to stretch out from six furlongs to a mile in the Cab Calloway. Friend Ofthe Devil is 3 for 3 going six furlongs on turf.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though Chancer McPatrick won his first two-turn race on Thursday, taking the Curlin Stakes by a head over So Sandy, trainer Chad Brown said Friday that his initial inclination is to cut him back in distance for the Grade 1, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens on Aug. 23 rather than seek more ground in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers the same day.

The Jerkens is run at seven furlongs, the same distance at which Chancer McPatrick won last year’s Grade 1 Hopeful. The Travers is run at 1 1/4 miles.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mystik Dan, the 2024 Kentucky Derby, had his first local workout since shipping up here on July 10, and though he worked a half-mile on the dirt Friday morning, it’s possible his future could be on the turf.

Trainer Kenny McPeek said he expects to work Mystik Dan on the turf next week to see how he handles it. If Mystik Dan likes it, a possible next race could be the Grade 3, $2.5 million Mint Millions Invitational going one mile at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 6.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Mark Casse’s fears that Nitrogen’s blowout victory in the off-the-turf Wonder Again Stakes on June 6 was simply a product of a sloppy track were erased Friday morning after the 3-year-old filly worked a sharp half-mile in 47.75 seconds over a fast Saratoga main track.

Trainer Michael McCarthy had a one-word recollection on Friday morning of Formidable Man’s fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 26.

“Frustrated,” he said.

The 5-2 favorite, Formidable Man closed well to finish 1 1/4 lengths behind race winner King of Gosford in the $302,000 Shoemaker Mile.

Formidable Man is likely to be favored again in Sunday’s Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar. This time, the race is 1 1/8 miles on turf, on a course and at a distance the 4-year-old colt adores.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Graham Motion went into the year thinking No Show Sammy Jo could be his top distance female turf horse. To date, it hasn’t worked out that way, the 5-year-old mare having gone 0 for 3 in 2025.

Coming off the best of her three efforts this year, No Show Sammy Jo will be given another opportunity to show Motion wasn’t wrong when she starts in Sunday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Glens Falls Stakes at Saratoga. The 1 1/2-mile turf race drew a field of eight, three from the Miguel Clement barn.