The satellite map of Franklin, Ky., shows a patchwork of rural landscape, fields, and farms in various hues of green.

How appropriate.

Dollars are pouring from the sky at Kentucky Downs, the fleeting race meeting in Franklin. The 2023 season, seven days of it, begins Thursday with a 10-race card worth $2.14 million.

Fresh off celebrating this month’s King’s Plate winner and other stakes victors as graduates, the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society’s Ontario division hosts the Canadian premier yearling sale on Wednesday in Toronto with incentives on the table for both buyers and breeders.

There are 252 yearlings cataloged, with 168 of those being Ontario-bred and Ontario-sired, representing 22 different stallions in the province. The remaining 84 yearlings in the catalog are Ontario-bred, but by stallions standing in the United States.

It’s been nowhere but up for Kentucky Downs over the past decade. The first track in Kentucky to install historical horse racing machines, in 2011, Kentucky Downs has gone from being a border-town curiosity to a powerhouse on the Kentucky racing circuit. This year, an estimated $2 billion will be bet at its two casinos near the Tennessee border. From that, approximately $15 million will be sent into the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, while Kentucky Downs itself will retain nearly $150 million in net commissions.

Because horseplayers second-guess their own opinions, a fair amount of personal skepticism must be resolved before wagering Thursday at Del Mar. The card includes a handful of allowance races in which logical contenders face challenges that range from subtle to glaring.

Even the most probable winner on the card, a maiden-claiming 2-year-old in the second race, is far from perfect. The weekday program is the type that could either chalk out or reward longshot bettors who are able to exploit the potential vulnerability of low-odds runners.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After defeating open stakes company, and doing so impressively, last month at Ellis Park, The Wine Steward figures to be heavily favored when returning against statebreds in Sunday’s $200,000 Funny Cide Stakes at Saratoga.

The Wine Steward was certainly no secret when debuting against New York-breds on May 28 at Belmont Park, going postward a prohibitive 2-5 favorite and winning like one at first asking. He rallied from off the pace to a six-length victory while having speed to spare at the end.

Many New Jersey-breds spend part of the fall, all winter, and early spring away from the races, awaiting Monmouth Park’s annual spring return and the chance to start in statebred-restricted competition. For those horses, Sunday is the last major day of racing during 2023, as Monmouth hosts an all New Jersey-bred 10-race card that includes a pair of $100,000 stakes races.

Millie is not the only filly from Chile in Sunday’s closing-day feature at Gulfstream Park.

There’s also Ornela and Mistica Traviesa.

The South American imports are part of a field of seven fillies and mares for a first-level allowance that closes out the Royal Palm meet. Gulfstream begins its Sunshine meet Friday.

The fillies from Chile are all 4-year-olds by Into Mischief bred by Haras Matriarca. They are all trained by Amador Sanchez.

There are six older Quarter Horses in Sunday’s $100,000 Go Man Go at 400 yards at Los Alamitos, but the focus will be on two geldings – Empressum and Scoops Dynasty.

The pair have developed a budding rivalry this summer that could stretch into the fall and a race such as the $750,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos in December. The Champion of Champions is the nation’s leading race for older horses.

Empressum, the 2022 World Champion and winner of the Champion of Champions last December, is the leading older horse in the nation, but not by much.