The stars of Damon’s Mound and Ryvit have risen and fallen in opposition to one another. Damon’s Mound looked like one of the potential stars in his class winning his first two starts last year, but then struggled when experimenting with distance and surface. At that time, Ryvit was riding a win streak to emerge as one of the best 3-year-old sprinters in the country.

Bobby Ussery, the Hall of Fame jockey whose exploits as a rider led to a particular portion of Aqueduct’s main track to be dubbed “Ussery’s Alley,” died earlier this week in Hollywood, Fla., due to congestive heart failure, according to his son Robert Ussery Jr. He was 88.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – On the day the New York Racing Association conducts the $135,000 Forever Together Stakes, George Strawbridge’s Augustin Stables, which campaigned the champion turf mare Forever Together, has two opportunities Sunday to honor her with homebreds running in stakes races at Aqueduct.

Strawbridge will send out the in-form Regal Realm in the Forever Together, one of eight females entered in the 1 1/16-mile race scheduled for the outer turf.

Unbeaten Horse of the Year Flightline received a strong reception at stud at Lane’s End Farm, covering a star-studded book at an advertised fee of $200,000, one of the highest in recent years. His strong reception continued with his first mares in foal at the November mixed auctions.

Two-time Eclipse Award champion Essential Quality, standing for breeder Darley, led first-crop weanling sires by average at the Keeneland November mixed sale. All four of Essential Quality’s weanlings offered sold for six figures, led by a $485,000 colt to Shadwell Racing, resulting in an average of $327,500 to top first-crop sires with three or more sold.

Grade 1 winner Charlatan was next in the class by average price, with an impressive 14 of his 16 offspring through the ring sold for an average of $200,714.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Given that only two juveniles this year have earned a higher figure than the 96 Beyer that Nysos earned in his smashing debut, the colt looks tough to beat Sunday when he stretches to seven furlongs in the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at Del Mar.

Nysos won his debut by a double-digit margin, six furlongs in 1:08.97, to instantly emerge as one of the country’s top juvenile colts. His winning figure ranks behind only the 105 by Fierceness in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the 103 by Prince of Monaco in the Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes.

It would come as no surprise if horses trained by Bill Mott won four Eclipse Awards for their 2023 campaigns. Just F Y I seems like a lock to be champion 2-year-old filly, Elite Power has sewn up champion sprinter, and Cody’s Wish could be champion older male and Horse of the Year. Nonetheless, Mott has as much reason to look forward as back after unleashing a pair of high-level 2-year-old prospects at Churchill Downs.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – On Sunday, Hunt Master brings solid turf form to Woodbine’s featured conditioned allowance, which has a $50,000 claiming option. Can he make a successful transition back to Tapeta after breaking from the outside post 10 in the 1 1/16-mile route?

There’s rain forecast at both Aqueduct and Del Mar, perhaps not enough to spoil some appealing grass races, and coast to coast, turf and dirt, we’re forecasting upsets on this Saturday of American stakes racing.

Hill Prince

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With two-time stakes winner El Grande O skipping the race, Saturday’s $100,000 Notebook Stakes for New York-bred juvenile colts and geldings at Aqueduct looks to be a pretty wide-open affair.

Nine were entered in the six-furlong Notebook, though Works for Me was cross-entered for Sunday’s $120,000 Central Park Stakes on turf and is now likely to end up there, according to trainer Joe Lee.