If not for Kentucky Downs, 5-year-old Vergara on Saturday might be standing pregnant in a field. Instead, she lines up for the Ladies Turf Marathon trying to run her Kentucky Downs record to 3 for 3.

In 2022, Vergara won the $445,000 Dueling Grounds Oaks over 1 5/16 miles. In 2023, she won the $900,000 Ladies Turf Marathon at 1 5/16 miles. This year’s renewal comes at the same distance but with a doubled purse, $2 million for Kentucky-breds like Vergara, whose only wins since 2021 have come at this track.

Trainer Mario Serey Jr. won 40 races during 2023. Out of nowhere he has won 30 during the 2024 Monmouth Park season alone.

Twenty-seven of Serey’s winners have come in claiming races. One of his non-claiming winners also is Serey’s only maiden special weight winner at the meet, and Shootersgottashoot could give Serey his first stakes win of 2024.

Bp Cartel Policy had a three-race win streak end with a troubled fifth in a division of the Golden State Derby trials on Aug. 17 at Los Alamitos.

The consolation was Bp Cartel Policy ran in the fastest of three time trials. Beaten two lengths by Rockin With Energy, Bp Cartel Policy was quick enough to secure the eighth of 10 qualifying times for Saturday’s $193,400 final at 400 yards.

If Bp Cartel Policy can avoid a troubled start that plagued his Aug. 17 race, the gelding can win his third stakes of 2024.

After the 2-year-old filly Thought Process finished a well-beaten third in her debut in a maiden race on dirt July 27 at Del Mar, it was already time for a career change.

When Thought Process won her second start in a convincing manner in a maiden race at a mile on turf Aug. 17, the rest of her season, and perhaps her career, was defined.

Rated by Merit reigned as the fastest 2-year-old in the land for part of the summer and on Saturday makes the much-anticipated second start of his career in the $100,000 Dr. Fager division of the Florida Sire Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

The six-furlong dirt race shares a card with both the $100,000 Desert Vixen division for fillies led by Win N Your In and the $75,000 Mambo Meister.

The Grade 1, $2 million Franklin-Simpson Stakes – purses at Kentucky Downs include contributions from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund for which only Kentucky-breds are eligible – has drawn an overflow field of 3-year-olds to go 6 1/2 furlongs on turf. The event is one of multiple upgrades the American Graded Stakes Committee awarded to Kentucky Downs last December, and is the Franklin, Ky., track’s first to achieve Grade 1 status.

Nearly a year after they finished first and second at Santa Anita, Grade 1 winners Didia and Anisette meet again in Saturday’s Grade 2 John C. Mabee Stakes at Del Mar.

While the $250,000 Mabee Stakes, at 1 1/8 miles on turf for fillies and mares, is a worthwhile goal, the main objective is preparing Didia and Anisette for a greater target, the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 2.

DEL MAR, Calif. – If not for her $1.8 million auction price, one might look at the favorite in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Saturday and wonder – what’s all the fuss?

Make no mistake. Nooni is good. But opinions differ on just how good.

Balladeer could have been lone speed last weekend in the Del Mar Turf Cup but was scratched to race Saturday in the Grade 2 Kentucky Turf Cup at Kentucky Downs. This is called adding fuel to the fire.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Due to limited opportunities at Woodbine, English Conqueror has taken his show on the road this year to the United States. The long-distance turf expert gets a home race going 1 1/4 miles in Saturday’s $100,000 Niagara, an overnight stakes with a 12-horse field of older runners scheduled for the main turf course.