SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Chop Chop appears to have found her niche as a marathon turf runner and will seek a second win at 1 1/2 miles when she starts as the potential favorite in Thursday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Glens Falls Stakes at Saratoga.

In her last three starts, Chop Chop won the Grade 3 Bewitch at Churchill Downs, was beaten a half-length in the Keertana at Keeneland, and beaten one length by War Like Goddess in the Grade 3 Robert Dick Memorial at Delaware Park. Two of those races were at 1 1/2 miles, the Robert Dick was at 1 3/8 miles.

DEL MAR, Calif. – In sprints and routes, turf and dirt, handicapping challenges abound Thursday at Del Mar.

They begin in the first two races – a turf raffle for maiden 2-year-old fillies, followed by a claiming dirt mile in which a top contender faces a speed-friendly track profile.

Things simplify in the featured seventh race, a dirt mile for California-bred allowance fillies and mares, although the key entrant is a 3-year-old filly facing older for the first time after she scratched last week from a stakes race. It’s not an easy game.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Fairway to Heaven has about three lengths to make up on El Cohete to have a chance in Thursday’s Woodbine headliner. He could certainly do it as a new gelding in the nonwinners-of-two event combining Ontario-sired stock with $40,000 claimers.

El Cohete failed to scratch into the 2023 King’s Plate. He went to the sidelines after a runner-up finish on the grass in late September and was a wide fifth in his May 19 season opener.

It will have taken 210 days for One Timer and Nobals, crack turf sprinters trained by Larry Rivelli, to make their first start during 2024. All that time, and the pair returns to action on the same day, Sunday, Nobals in a Saratoga allowance race, One Timer in the $100,000 Robert Molaro Stakes at Hawthorne, Rivelli’s home track.

Walter Hodges, a noted Quarter Horse jockey who later trained Thoroughbreds, died Monday in Chickasha, Okla., according to his brother, Dale Hodges. Walter Hodges was 81.

Dale Hodges said his brother died from complications that arose due to circulation issues in his left leg.

Walter Hodges competed as a jockey for about 30 years, among his high points in the saddle was winning the 1970 Rainbow Derby at Ruidoso Downs aboard the filly Go Together.

Red Route One is under serious consideration for the Grade 2, $1 million Charles Town Classic following his recent win in the Grade 3 Cornhusker at Prairie Meadows, according to his trainer, Steve Asmussen.

Red Route One was up for a half-length win over stablemate Unload in the Cornhusker, a 1 1/8-mile race held July 6. The Charles Town Classic will be run over the same distance Aug. 23.

“We’ll consider a couple of spots for him, but probably the most likely is the Charles Town Classic,” Asmussen said.

Though 11 were entered for the $100,000 Colleen, a turf-sprint stakes for 2-year-olds Sunday at Monmouth Park, it should come down to three horses.

While several of the 2-year-old fillies in the Colleen have flashed talent, it would be surprising if this five-furlong grass dash yields a winner outside the trio of Dreamaway, Lemonpeppasteppa, and Sharedshenanigans.

Rated by Merit looked like something of a throwback to his sire earlier this month, when he put up the year’s highest Beyer Speed Figure for a 2-year-old in a maiden special weight at Gulfstream Park. He earned a 92 for his debut win, romping by 9 3/4 lengths while covering six furlongs in a sharp 1:10.50. The next best Beyer among all 2-year-olds of 2024 is an 88.

“It was pretty impressive,” trainer Michael Yates said of the race. “He looks like he has a lot of natural, raw talent.”

Rags to riches story Time for Trouble receives class relief on Sunday at Laurel Park when he drops out of three graded stakes to compete in the $100,000 Deputed Testamony for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles.

Time for Trouble was claimed for $8,000 by trainer Jeff Hiles during the spring of 2021.

“We weren’t risking a lot and he looked like he had a lot of upside,” Hiles said. “We ran him three times, turned him out and gelded him, stretched him out [in distance], and he’s done good ever since.”

Although the Del Mar winner’s circle is the immediate goal for every starter in the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes on Sunday, four Grade 1 winners could use the turf stakes as a means to end.

If 1 1/8 miles is too far for milers Johannes and Du Jour, there’s always the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile next month. There Goes Harvard, a Grade 1 winner on dirt, is under consideration for the Grade 1 Pacific Classic. The main summer target for Gold Phoenix is the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at a mile and three-eighths.