OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jockeys Ricardo Santana Jr., Joel Rosario, Katie Davis, and Ruben Silvera are each serving one-day suspensions issued by NYRA steward Victor Escobar on behalf of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.

The suspensions were all due to violations of the crop rule, which limits jockeys to six strikes during the running of a race. Each of the riders sanctioned used the crop seven times in their respective races. Santana and Rosario were each fined $500 while Davis and Silvera were both fined $250. The fines reflect the size of the purse for each race.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While trainer Chad Brown’s prowess in several of the Breeders’ Cup turf races is well documented, it might be surprising to some to learn is he is the leading trainer in the BC Filly and Mare Sprint on dirt as well.

Brown has won three runnings of the Filly and Mare Sprint, including the last two with Goodnight Olive. Next month, Brown will seek a personal three-peat with Ways and Means after that filly won Sunday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Gallant Bloom Stakes.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer John Kimmel knows all too well what his debut winner Vekoma Rides is up against in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne at Aqueduct.

Kimmel was part of the bloodstock company that helped buy Chancer McPatrick for Sean Flanagan at the OBS April sale for $725,000. Chancer McPatrick won his debut at Saratoga, then came back to win the Grade 1 Hopeful for Flanagan and trainer Chad Brown.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There have been 11 cards run thus far at the Belmont at the Big A meet and there has been a pick six carryover at the conclusion of five of them. That doesn’t include Sunday, when the pick six was not offered after racing officials moved four scheduled turf races to the dirt and canceled the Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes due to rain and rescheduled it for next Sunday.

Cipriano Contreras came up as an assistant in Chicago to Mike Reavis, mainly a claiming trainer. Contreras since going out on his own in 2016 has carved a successful niche summering at Horseshoe Indianapolis and wintering at Oaklawn Park while, like Reavis, mainly running a claiming operation.

Over the last five years, Contreras has 122 claiming-race winners. By contrast, Contreras has debuted only 36 horses in maiden special weight races during the same period. But with the 3-year-old Demolisher, Contreras has shown he can develop a horse as well as claim one.

The Thursday feature at Thistledown, the $75,000 Greg Veit Scarlet and Gray Stakes for Ohio-bred fillies and mares sprinting six furlongs on the dirt, has drawn a field of five. But two of those five are statebred champion Back to Ohio, again a stakes winner this season, and Generous Lover, who was a smash in her home state this summer. That makes this, despite the short field, a potential key race in the campaign for this year’s statebred championships.