In compiling a six-race winning streak in Southern California since the fall of 2021, Eda has either set the pace or raced within a length of the front. She has won races in classes ranging from an allowance race to a Grade 1 at distances from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles.

Eda can be a determined filly as displayed when she repelled a challenge in the stretch to record a hard-fought victory by a neck in the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos on July 4.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The $200,000 West Point Handicap has five horses in it who have spent the last couple of years knocking heads against each other in the stakes races restricted to New York-breds on the New York circuit.

And then there’s Spirit of St Louis.

Puca, the dam of Kentucky Derby winner Mage, will be offered at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale by Case Clay Thoroughbred Management, a new operation for a lifelong Thoroughbred professional.

Clay grew up at Three Chimneys Farm, which was founded by his father, Robert Clay, in 1972. He worked at a variety of roles there in his youth and as an adult. After Robert Clay sold the farm to Goncalo Torrealba in 2013, Case Clay stayed on there as chief commercial officer, but also began helping outside clients with bloodstock management, purchases, and equine insurance.

Two-year-olds will be in the spotlight in $50,000 divisions of the Washington Cup Juvenile, with probable favorite Neissa the one to beat in the fillies division on Sunday at Emerald Downs. The daughter of Gold Rush Dancer, trained by Candice Cryderman, most recently set the early pace before finishing third, beaten 4 1/4 lengths, by division leader Appeal Factor in the WTBOA Lassies Stakes on Aug. 6.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse won last Sunday’s King’s Plate with Paramount Prince. His next Canadian-bred star could be My Boy Prince, who will be favored in Sunday’s $200,000 Simcoe, one of four Tapeta stakes on the Woodbine card for graduates of Canadian yearling sales.

Monday’s rescheduled Hastings card brings the annual Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Sales Stakes in four separate $50,000 events, with recent stakes winners August Rain and Lizzie’s Rayne expected to take the most interest.

The races, which were postponed from Aug. 21 due to poor air quality, are restricted to runners who passed through various equine sales in Canada and as such have drawn very unique fields.

If no opinion is better than a bad opinion this space should have been left blank last week. While last week’s opinions were garbage, they’re also by now just another bunch of sentences heaped onto the digital trash pile. It’s Travers Saturday. Time for more opinions.

Travers

Watching workout videos for the third-most important 1 1/4-mile dirt race in North America has been an enjoyable exercise. We’ve got some good workers in the Travers. Even National Treasure, a horse I don’t fancy though a key pace element, has been breezing with aplomb.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A matchup of two Eclipse Award winners with nearly identical records is in the offing in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina Handicap for female sprinters at Saratoga.

Echo Zulu, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2021, and Goodnight Olive, the champion female sprinter of 2022, top an eight-horse field in the Ballerina, a seven-furlong race that awards the winner a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.

Big and Classy has won seven of his last eight starts at Gulfstream Park and will attempt to conquer a new distance Saturday in the track’s $60,000 Edwin T. Broome.

The overnight handicap will be Big and Classy’s first start at a mile. The one-turn race on the main track has drawn a field of six. The group includes millionaire Long Range Toddy, who is co-highweighted with Big and Classy at 123 pounds.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The two occasions in the last 40 years that the Travers Stakes brought together the three separate winners of the Triple Crown races, none of those horses won. In 1982, Runaway Groom pulled off a 12-1 upset. In 2017, it was West Coast, at 6-1.

Saturday, the 154th Travers Stakes at Saratoga will include Kentucky Derby winner Mage, Preakness winner National Treasure, and Belmont Stakes winner Arcangelo. Despite their talent, it may not be a surprise if none of those horses win.