ETOBICOKE, Ontario – A mile and a quarter seems ideal for the Irish import Fanore, who should be favored in Thursday’s sixth race at Woodbine, a maiden special on the main turf with a base purse of $72,000.

A 4-year-old trained by Tony Gattellaro, Fanore started twice at 2 in Ireland without showing much. The son of Churchill commenced his 3-year-old campaign with a third-place finish at Cork, after which he finished far back in three consecutive races.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. had originally planned on being an integral part of Thursday’s feature race at Saratoga with Ny Traffic, who he recently shipped from South Florida to participate in the John Morrissey Stakes. But when that race failed to fill due to a lack of entries, Thursday’s main event became a $149,500 allowance test for 3-year-old fillies carded at 1 1/8 miles on the turf, with Joseph’s Be My Sunshine likely to be among the key contenders if the race stays on the grass as scheduled.

Bus Buzz’s days of racing exclusively in main track sprints for statebreds ended, at least temporarily, with his emphatic win in the Real Good Deal Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs on dirt at Del Mar last Friday.

For his final start of the Del Mar summer meeting, Bus Buzz is scheduled to run in the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at five furlongs on turf Sept. 2. The $150,000 Green Flash Handicap will be Bus Buzz’s stakes debut against older horses.

The winner receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.

It took a few days last week for Northern California-based trainer O.J. Jauregui to find a rider for Dreamfyre in Saturday’s Grade 3 Sorrento Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Del Mar.

A few phone calls and text messages to agents went unanswered, Jauregui said, before Hector Berrios was confirmed to ride Dreamfyre in the $200,000 race at six furlongs.

On Monday at Del Mar, Berrios was aboard Dreamfyre for the first time in a three-furlong workout in a rapid 35 seconds. The time was a bit quicker than Jauregui expected.

All-sources handle through the first four weeks (19 cards) of the Saratoga meet is $380,474,631, down 8.8 percent from the $416,970,416 handled through the first 19 days of the 2022 meet, according to figures provided by the New York Racing Association.

Ontrack handle is $65,703,793, down 6.5 percent from the 2022 figure of $70,264,281 handled last year to this point.

Paid admissions are 509,741, up 4.8 percent from the 486,408 figure of 2022. Paid admissions include season passes sold.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Unbeaten in three starts this year and nearly perfect at one mile, Sunset Louise has a lot in her favor as she attempts to win her first stakes in Wednesday’s $125,000 Johnstone Mile Handicap at Saratoga.

The Johnstone, restricted to New York-bred females, drew seven, but is likely to lose at least one runner as Betsy Blue was re-entered for Friday’s $125,000 Union Avenue Stakes.

Sunset Louise has a 4-1-0 record from five starts at the Johnstone’s distance of a mile. She has won twice here out of the Wilson chute, which just opened last year.

Brightwork earned her way to the Grade 1 Spinaway here Sept. 3 by virtue of a relatively easy five-length victory in Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Adirondack Stakes.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who developed White Abarrio into a Grade 1 winner before the horse was transferred to trainer Rick Dutrow due to sanctions placed upon Joseph by Churchill Downs and NYRA, said he was very proud of his former pupil after watching him dominate the Grade 1 Whitney on Saturday.

The sanctions against Joseph, which came following the sudden deaths of two of his horses in a 72-hour period at Churchill this spring, were ultimately dropped several weeks ago.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Sometimes, handicapping is black and white. Other times, it is Thursday at Del Mar.

A card filled with ambiguity requires weekday horseplayers to address the uncertainty, and attempt to quantify the unquantifiable. Some situations are less complicated than others.

For example, race 1 starter Pink Ace: A shipper from the Midwest, Pink Ace shortens from a route to a sprint for her first start since April and first for trainer Phil D’Amato. Notwithstanding new distance, surface, and trainer, Pink Ace enters the starter-allowance sprint as the one to beat.