The 2-year-old colt Dazzle d’Oro sent his trainer, Tom Amoss, traveling back in time. Amoss thought about when he first came to Churchill Downs in the early 1990s, and a conversation with the late Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Lynn Whiting.

“He told me if you ever have a horse work five-eighths from the gate in under a minute, you’ve got a runner,” Amoss said.

Dazzle d’Oro, who had breezed through the spring at Keeneland, moved to Churchill and had his first work there June 11, going five-eighths from the gate in 59.80. And, yes, he is a runner.

It’s not only that Percy’s Bar is winning big, but how she’s winning big that makes trainer Ben Colebrook appreciate what the 2-year-old filly already has done and what she might get done the rest of this season.

Percy’s Bar doesn’t fit the mold of many sharp early-season 2-year-olds, who show a lot of speed and might run fast but merely are running more than racing with intention.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The depth of the older male dirt division is such that six days after a star-studded group competed in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs, Friday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Suburban Stakes at Saratoga came up with a quality field.

Country House, by virtue of Maximum Security’s disqualification, won the 2019 Kentucky Derby. He ran once on turf, in his career debut, and finished 10th. But the best horse, at least in terms of earnings, that Country House has produced as a stallion of modest success thrives on grass. In fact, Bridle a Butterfly is the opposite of his sire.

“His last race was on dirt,” said Bridle a Butterfly’s trainer, Al Stall. “Just throw it out.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Lumberyard’s Tapeta form has gone south, but a switch to grass could be just what the doctor ordered in Friday’s sixth race at Woodbine.