Forged Steel has emerged as one of the more exciting 2-year-olds at the Royal Palm meet at Gulfstream Park and soon he will advance to stakes company.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Very little separates the trio of Future Is Now, Roses for Debra, and Dontlookbackatall and, as in most turf sprints, the result of Friday’s $150,000 Smart N Fancy Stakes likely will come down to trip.

Trainer Mike Trombetta hopes the outside draw results in Future Is Now getting the stalking trip that proved effective in her upset victory over Roses for Debra in the Grade 2 Intercontinental Stakes here in June.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Scylla, coming off two graded stakes wins around two turns and a second to Adare Manor in the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch on Aug. 3 at Del Mar, was a surprise entrant in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina Handicap.

The town of Ferndale, Calif., with a population of approximately 1,500, is 260 miles north of Oakland and 430 miles south of Portland, Oregon.

Located in the far northwest corner of California, Ferndale is not easy to get to and yet the Humboldt County fair is a late summer destination for thousands in the region.

The fair’s racing meeting, on a half-mile track, is very much part of the draw.

The season begins Friday with a six-race program beginning at 3:15 p.m. Pacific, consisting of five races for Thoroughbreds and one for Quarter Horses.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A better post and the prestige of Saratoga won out over perhaps an easier spot in Charles Town for trainer Derek Ryan, who on Wednesday confirmed that Book’em Danno would run in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens.

Book’em Danno, a 3-year-old New Jersey-bred gelding by Bucchero, also was entered in Friday night’s $500,000 Robert Hilton Stakes at Charles Town, where he most likely would have been an odds-on favorite. Both races are at seven furlongs.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When it’s come to Dornoch, trainer Danny Gargan has put himself out there on multiple occasions. His faith in the horse – well before Dornoch ever ran – has been rewarded with what may be his horse of a lifetime.

A horse Gargan almost couldn’t afford to buy due to a lack of commitment from clients, Dornoch could be on the verge of becoming a champion when he bids for his third consecutive Grade 1 stakes victory in Saturday’s $1.25 million Travers at Saratoga.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Kenny McPeek had a plan for Thorpedo Anna’s training session Wednesday morning. Thorpedo Anna was not cooperative.

After drawing the rail for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes and noting that Thorpedo Anna had gotten antsy in the gate and broke poorly before winning the Coaching Club American Oaks here last month, McPeek was going to let Thorpedo Anna gallop out of the starting gate on the Oklahoma training track.

The Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes on Friday at York is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, and two of its entrants already have Breeders’ Cup experience.

Big Evs, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint last fall, and Live In The Dream, fourth in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, were among 14 horses to pass the final entry stage of the Nunthorpe, a Group 1 over five furlongs.

The first Charles Town starter for trainer Phil Bauer and his lone client, Richard Rigney’s Rigney Racing, looks like a live one.

Princess Madison enters the Grade 2, $750,000 Charles Town Oaks on a two-race winning streak, primed for her stakes debut, which comes in a two-turn, seven-furlong contest that drew an overflow field of 11 3-year-old fillies.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Speed Grazy, who starts from the inside post in an allowance race for California-breds at Del Mar on Friday, was recently described by trainer Mark Glatt as a “check-getter.”

A 5-year-old, Speed Grazy has finished second or third in six of eight starts this year, earning a fair $68,640 for Seahawk Racing.

Glatt, who won three races on Sunday, is eager to see Speed Grazy achieve an elusive first win of the year in Friday’s one-mile race.

“He’s a consistent horse,” Glatt said. “Hopefully, it’s time for him to win the condition.”