ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Saratoga-based Kalik drew post 6 and has been tabbed as the 3-1 morning-line favorite for the 164th running of the $1 million King’s Plate on Sunday at Woodbine. The 1 1/4-mile classic on Tapeta has 17 Canadian-foaled 3-year-olds in the body of the race, plus two also-eligibles.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer George Weaver is batting a gaudy .500 (11 for 22) with his 2-year-olds on turf this year, including his fruitful trip to Ascot that saw Crimson Advocate win the Group 2 Queen Mary.

No Nay Mets is responsible for two of Weaver’s 10 juvenile turf wins in the U.S. and one loss abroad. No Nay Mets will look to continue his domestic success Friday at Saratoga when he heads a bulky field in the $150,000 Skidmore Stakes, which is scheduled for 5 1/2 furlongs over the Mellon turf course.

Kokokomo has a license to make some noise in the stakes for older horses this meet at Remington Park and he gets his first shot to do so Friday night, when he takes on local stakes winners Warrant and Number One Dude in the $100,000 Governor’s Cup.

The 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up is part of a nine-race season opener. The 67-date meet will run through Dec. 15. The card Saturday drew 86 horses for an average of 9.6 runners a race. It’s a promising start to what will be a special season in Oklahoma City.

In her first start of 2023, Neige Blanche returned from an eight-month layoff to win the seventh stakes of her career in the Possibly Perfect at Santa Anita on June 18.

Her second start of the season occurs in Friday’s $100,000 CTT and TOC Handicap for fillies and mares at 1 3/8 miles on turf, the 6-year-old mare’s third consecutive appearance in the race.

Loco Abarrio might offer a little more value than usual on Friday when he faces Florida Derby alum Nautical Star and stakes winner Lightning Tones in the seventh race at Gulfstream Park.

“I think the race came up kind of tough,” Ronnie Spatz, the trainer of Loco Abarrio, said Monday. “I thought going into the race he’d be the favorite. After just glancing at it – I haven’t studied it closely yet – I don’t think we will be.”

My Legal Bet has a chance to tower over her rivals in Friday evening’s co-featured $25,000 claiming event at Emerald Downs, but the Justin Evans trainee has not raced since winning a $50,000 starter allowance on June 3 at Golden Gate Fields and has never raced on dirt.

If My Legal Bet is able to navigate those considerable hurdles, Friday’s fourth race will be hers to lose. Of his recent acquisition, Evans said she “has a lot of class and brings a lot of upside. Her last work was sharp, and [she] drew into a competitive race.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Umneyaat will team up with leading Woodbine apprentice Sofia Vives in Friday’s feature, a nonwinners-of-three event combining Ontario-sired allowance types and $40,000 claimers going 7 1/2 furlongs on the inner turf.

Umneyaat ran the majority of her best races around the tight turns of the inner course. The Street Boss mare finished second on the inner layout twice last year, including a heart-breaking nose loss against $25,000 nonwinners-of-two claimers in October.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Disarm, fourth in the Kentucky Derby and in the Jim Dandy Stakes most recently, will be equipped with blinkers when he runs in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 26, trainer Steve Asmussen said.

Disarm worked in blinkers for the first time Monday morning, going five furlongs in 1:00.19 over the Oklahoma training track. Starting his work just outside of the Grade 1-winning mare Pauline’s Pearl, Disarm got his final quarter in 24.17 seconds and galloped out six furlongs in 1:13.19 and seven furlongs in 1:26.69.

A tidal wave of winning has washed away some of the pain in the Larry Rivelli barn that came from losing Kentucky Derby runner-up Two Phil’s to early retirement after the colt won the Ohio Derby on June 24. Since Two Phil’s’ career-ending injury, Rivelli has gone 16 for 49, a red-hot 33 percent strike rate that actually has lowered his 2023 winning percentage. In 2022, Rivelli lost his home track, Arlington Park, yet Rivelli, now based over the summer at Hawthorne, is on his way to a career year in earnings and stakes wins.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Kenny McPeek will seek his third victory in the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes in six years when he sends out Defining Purpose in Saturday’s $600,000 race for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/4 miles at Saratoga.

McPeek won the Alabama in 2018 with Eskimo Kisses and again in 2020 with Swiss Skydiver, horses he was confident could handle the 1 1/4 miles of the race. He is hopeful, though not totally confident, Defining Purpose, who upset the Grade 1 Ashland at 20-1 in April and who is coming off a victory in the Indiana Oaks, can get the distance.