ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Caitlinhergrtness will try to rebound off a disappointing effort on the grass when she negotiates 1 1/16 miles on the Tapeta in Saturday’s $150,000 Trillium, one of two Grade 3 stakes on the card, along with the $150,000 Ontario Colleen.

Caitlinhergrtness is best known for capturing last year’s King's Plate and winning the 2024 Sovereign Award for champion 3-year-old filly. She easily won her May 31 season opener in the Grade 3 Belle Mahone on the Tapeta with a career-high 95 Beyer Speed Figure, after which she came up empty in the Grade 2 Nassau.

Fondly and Running Away made no impression whatsoever contesting Grade 1 races in Kentucky this spring, but Saturday in New Jersey the Monmouth Oaks could come down to those two 3-year-old fillies.

The Grade 3, $250,000 Monmouth Oaks at 1 1/16-miles drew seven entrants, four of whom were the first-call leader in at least one of their last two starts. That group includes Fondly, who raced wire to wire winning the Delaware Oaks in her most recent start, a sharp form reversal following an 11th-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks.

Hades, winner of the Grade 3 Holy Bull last year, will return to Gulfstream Park in search of a bounce-back effort in the $70,000 Tackleberry Handicap on Friday. The 4-year-old gelding has run at six tracks in seven starts since leaving his home track in 2024.

“We tried entering him a couple times, but the two-other-thans just aren’t going,” Orseno said. “They had this race at Gulfstream, and when I entered him, he was still at Monmouth. They said they were going to try to make the race, and I put him in and put him on a van.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Rohan Crichton said to just put a line through Macho Music’s last start, a seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens. Those heeding that advice likely will find themselves leaning toward the speedy 3-year-old as the horse to beat when he drops back to the Grade 2 level for Friday’s $200,000 Amsterdam at Saratoga.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Johannes, a finalist for the Eclipse Award in the male turf division in 2024, is scheduled to make his 2025 debut in the Grade 1, $750,000 Fourstardave Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 2, trainer Tim Yakteen said Tuesday.

The Grade 1 status of the Fourstardave, a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 1 at Del Mar, made the Fourstardave the choice over this weekend’s Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar, Yakteen said.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It’s been quite the whirlwind month for jockey Chris Elliott – and July isn’t over.

Elliott, who began the month as an apprentice jockey, won stakes without the weight allowance at Prairie Meadows and Saratoga within a two-week period. In between, he narrowly escaped injury after being unseated a quarter-mile into the first race of the traditional Saratoga meet on July 10.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The speedsters Bentornato, Howard Wolowitz, and Gabaldon, who could be major factors in their respective divisions during the second half of the season, arrived here from South Florida earlier this week. All three are likely to make one start at this meet, according to their trainer, Jose D’Angelo.

After winning the $100,000 Wolf Hill at Monmouth Park last weekend, trainer Michael Salvaggio Jr. said that 5-year-old gelding Fierce and Strong will make his next start against statebred rivals in the $75,000 Marshall Jenney Stakes at Penn National on Aug. 15.

“I always thought he was going to be a better route horse, but I’m not so sure now,” Salvaggio said. “It almost looks like he might be a better sprinter, so for right now, we’re probably looking to keep him sprinting.”

When Eric Johnston left his hometown of Grantville, Pa., in the 1980s, he thought he was leaving for good. His career in the racing industry kept him elsewhere for decades, but when he finally returned to Penn National Race Course in 2014, his old home was familiar and foreign all at once.