Ellis Park – the Pea Patch, so called because of crops growing on the infield. The track sits not in Henderson, Ky., population 30,000, but across the Ohio River from it. The Indiana border lies about 100 yards from the far turn. The place used to function as a summer placeholder on the Kentucky circuit, with big barns moving from Churchill’s spring meet to Saratoga, leaving Ellis to the lesser locals.

Placeholders no longer exist among Kentucky racetracks. They give away vast sums over the winter at Turfway Park, and the purses this summer at Ellis are staggering.

Four weeks after the New York Racing Association hosted the five-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga, it now will host the July Fourth Racing Festival, four days of racing beginning Thursday that previously were run as the final week of the Belmont Park spring/summer program and last year as part of the Belmont at Aqueduct spring/summer meet.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The very promising A. P. Kid, runaway winner of the Pennine Ridge at Saratoga just three weeks earlier, was euthanized after suffering an irreparable fracture while working over the Oklahoma turf course on Friday.

A. P. Kid had just entered the stretch when he “took a funny step switching leads,” trainer Todd Pletcher said in explaining what caused the fatal injury.

Trainer John Sadler and Hronis Racing have added the European winners Namaron and Suchet to their stable in advance of the Del Mar summer meeting.

Namaron, a 3-year-old German-bred, was third by three-quarters of a length in the Group 3 Badener Meile at Baden-Baden Racecourse in Germany on May 29. Namaron is by the Shamardal stallion Aramon.

Suchet, a 4-year-old by Cloth of Stars, is a two-time winner in 11 starts who was third in a minor stakes at a mile at Saint-Cloud Racecourse in Paris last November.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Grand Slam Smile won in a different manner in an allowance race on Saturday at Los Alamitos than in her preceding six wins – she fought back after being passed.

In her first start since November, Grand Slam Smile set the early pace, briefly lost her advantage to Ma Rae’s Girl, and then rallied to retake the lead, eventually winning by 2 1/2 lengths.

The style of the win left trainer Sean McCarthy slightly stunned, but delighted.

“I was concerned, put it that way,” McCarthy said.

One Magic Philly will need a career-best race to record an upset win in Saturday’s Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes for female sprinters at Los Alamitos, a field led by national division leader Kopion.

She can do just that, trainer Phil D’Amato said.

“She’s got the talent,” he said. “She has to put it all together.”

Owned and bred by John Gallegos, One Magic Philly has started once this year, finishing third as the even-money favorite in the $125,000 Skipat Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs on May 17 at Pimlico in her first start since late December.

There was no aspect of the Thoroughbred industry that the legendary D. Wayne Lukas left untouched – and that includes the bloodstock and commercial engines of the sport. While training for many top stables in their heyday – including William T. Young’s Overbrook Farm, multiple iterations of historic Calumet Farm, the beloved Robert and Beverly Lewis, global power Coolmore, and many others – Lukas developed a number of top broodmares and stallions, and, as their offspring became available, was an influential player in the sales ring.

On paper, the eighth race on a special Thursday night card at Emerald Downs looks like a pedestrian affair: nine hard-knocking fillies and mares looking for an elusive trip to the winner’s circle after duking it out over six furlongs for a claiming price of $10,000.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Some reclaims work out for the best, and the reclaim of Luz de La Luna by owners Lisa McCallum-Smith and Patrick Steane, along with trainer David Borsk, could be one of those in Thursday’s main event at Woodbine.

Those connections won a six-furlong sprint at the same conditioned allowance/optional-claiming class as Thursday’s level with Luz de La Luna last August, after which they lost her via a $47,500 claim in October.

Horseplayers who specialize in turf racing might have an edge in the Rainbow 6 jackpot sequence that has a mandatory payout Sunday at Gulfstream Park. The estimated pool for the 20-cent bet is $1.25 million.

Sunday’s sequence covers races 5-10 and half of the offerings will be run on the turf. They are the three richest races in the sequence – the sixth, eighth, and 10th.

Spy Hunter and Bluff appear to be chief contenders in the sixth, a first-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up at 7 1/2 furlongs. It carries a claiming option of $20,000.