Iscreamuscream was prominent throughout the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes at a mile on turf for 3-year-old fillies on July 20 at Del Mar, setting the pace before winning her first start at the distance.

The San Clemente was the perfect prep race for Saturday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at the longer distance of 1 1/8 miles on turf. Unbeaten in three starts, Iscreamuscream will need that experience, and another stout effort, to win the $300,000 Del Mar Oaks. The race drew a field of eight, including six other stakes winners.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Nathan Squires-trained Cairo Consort was crowned Canadian champion 2-year-old filly in 2022 after winning the Catch a Glimpse Stakes and running third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Squires will be armed with more Cairo Prince offspring on Saturday’s King’s Plate undercard when he saddles Cairo Caper in the $150,000 Soaring Free Stakes and Bound to Be True in the $150,000 Catch a Glimpse. Both are 6 1/2-furlong main-turf sprints that serve as preps for the Grade 1 Summer and Grade 1 Natalma.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse looks to have a foothold on Saturday’s $1 million King’s Plate as he sends out My Boy Prince, Essex Serpent, and Midnight Mascot in the 165th running of North America’s oldest annual stakes at Woodbine.

The 1 1/4-mile Tapeta event for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds could be a showdown between reigning Canadian champion 2-year-old male My Boy Prince and upstart Essex Serpent.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Filo Di Arianna got back on track when returning to Woodbine in the Grade 2 Highlander, and the two-time Canadian champion will prep for the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 King Edward.

A Brazilian import trained by Mark Casse, Filo Di Arianna had a banner 2022 season, which included front-running scores in the Grade 2 Connaught Cup and the one-mile King Edward. He was winless during an abbreviated 2023 campaign that featured a narrow loss in the Grade 3 Poker at Belmont.

Friendly Ghost

Gelding by Outwork – Kin’s Ghost, by Ghostzapper

Bred in Ontario by Phoenix Rising Farms ($35,134 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Ontario Premier yearling purchase by Sue Leslie)

Never worse than third in three starts, Friendly Ghost now eyes a major series of three, going in the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the King’s Plate.

Trainer Justin Evans has entered a powerful one-two punch in Saturday’s 6 1/2-furlong allowance feature at Emerald Downs. Peaceful Waters and Prisoner are each blessed with early speed, and that equates to a strong say in the outcome in a race with just six runners entered.

Remington Park jumps into its $3 million stakes schedule on opening night Friday with the $100,000 Governor’s Cup.

Unload should go favored following his runner-up finish to Red Route One in the Grade 3 Cornhusker at Prairie Meadows. Unload is part of a field of six that includes Paluxy, who won last year’s Governor’s Cup, and Mine That Star, a multiple stakes winner and half-brother to Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though the composition of the field changed some when it was re-drawn, Leeloo still looks like the horse to beat in Friday’s $125,000 Union Avenue Stakes at Saratoga.

Originally scheduled for Aug. 9, the Union Avenue, a six-furlong race for New York-bred females, was postponed by one week after that day’s card was canceled due to heavy rain. The $125,000 Evan Shipman for New York-bred males, also scheduled for Aug. 9, was rescheduled for Sunday.

Highestdistinction enters Friday’s $100,000 Oceanport Stakes on a four-race winning streak – and a 10-month layoff.

The 7-year-old gelding raised his game several notches during 2023 after Lindsay Schultz began training him for Willow Lane Stable. Highestdistinction’s win skein began in a starter-allowance race at Delaware Park 13 months ago, after which he won Oceanport by 1 1/2 lengths, followed by victories in the Grade 2 Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup and in a rich Keeneland allowance race.

Harrah’s Columbus, the first new racetrack to be built in Nebraska in decades, is set to open its inaugural meet Friday with purses augmented by revenues from a casino attached to the track.

Five races are scheduled for the opening card, which attracted only 26 total starters. Two of the races drew fields of four, while the $15,000 Amadevil Stakes for Nebraska-breds attracted seven horses.