ARCADIA, Calif. – The manner of Parenting’s first start around two turns in Sunday’s $100,000 Affirmed Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita has left Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert enthusiastic about the colt’s future.

In all likelihood, Baffert will know very soon where Parenting rates in the national division.

Parenting, a colt by Justify who races for Gandharvi LLC, is unbeaten in two starts. He won a maiden race at 5 1/2 furlongs by 2 3/4 lengths on April 26, and the Affirmed Stakes at 1 1/16 miles by 7 1/2 lengths as the 4-5 favorite.

The good news regarding the Indiana-bred 3-year-old colt Goodlookinjustice is that he came back from a winter break apparently a much faster horse than he went into it. Makes sense strictly from a maturation perspective. Goodlookinjustice in his final start of 2023 equaled his best Beyer Speed Figure with a 66. In his 2024 debut on April 24, Goodlookinjustice showed very good gate speed and led wire to wire in a non-winners-of-three Indiana-bred allowance race with his Beyer jumping to an 85.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Perhaps D. Wayne Lukas summed it up best when asked who is the current leader of the 3-year-old male division.

“What day are we talking about?” the 88-year-old Lukas said.

For the sixth straight year since Justify swept the Triple Crown in 2018, there were separate winners of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Dornoch won Saturday’s Belmont at Saratoga in a 10-horse field in which Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan finished seventh and Preakness winner Seize the Grey, trained by Lukas, finished eighth.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The spring meet is winding down and fresh horses are gearing up, including a 2-year-old first-time starter that bettors will be tempted to single on Thursday at Santa Anita.

A pick six carryover of $60,770 is up for grabs and $1.8 million juvenile Nooni is the presumptive favorite to win her career debut in race 6. Nooni, along with comebackers in a pair of turf allowance races, give a fresh-horse feel to the Thursday pick six, a $1 bet on races 4 through 9.

More than an hour after Sunday’s first race, the line of cars stretched from the nearby freeway, down a short road and up the long hill leading to the public parking lots at Golden Gate Fields in Albany, Calif.

Normally, cars pull into the racetrack as if a person was going into a shopping center on a Tuesday morning. The last day of racing at the historic Bay Area track was different. Getting in more resembled the traffic jam before a big sporting event.

The track announced an ontrack attendance of 5,936. The crowd on the previous Sunday was 1,424.

The young stallion Good Magic and the rising blue hen mare Puca landed in rare company with their son Dornoch’s victory in last Saturday’s Belmont Stakes – and Dornoch’s connections essentially landed a lottery ticket by purchasing the colt at a relative bargain before the family exploded thanks to his full brother, 2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage.

Wavertree Stables is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of selling one of its most noteworthy graduates at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s June sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age. Ciaran and Amy Dunne’s operation comes to this year’s OBS June sale with the usual good consignment, including a filly they bred in Florida.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The scheduled lane 4 rail placement on the grass Thursday at Woodbine means speed could be dangerous in the fourth and sixth races, which both have large fields of maidens going 6 1/2 furlongs on the main course.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – If someone told you that the last race on the Sunday card at Saratoga was a $300,000, Grade 2 stakes, you wouldn’t say they were crazy. The $125,000 Kingston Stakes for New York-breds at 1 1/16 miles on turf is that strong.

The Kingston lured an overflow field 16, a dozen in the main body, three also-eligibles, and one main-track-only horse, Jackson Heights.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – His final race of 2023 and his first start of 2024 were the two fastest races Drake’s Passage has run in his career. He lost them both.