ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Starter/optional claimers have become a staple at Woodbine, giving the little owners and trainers in the game a chance to make some money with a low-end horse over an extended period of time without the worry of losing the horse if protected.

Thursday’s sixth race is for older horses who ran for a claiming price of $7,500 or less in 2022-23, with a $15,000-claiming option. Scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the inner turf, it includes Solar, who has been running protected at the level since beating $7,500 claimers on the Tapeta in September.

The fast-improving Magic Tiger shortens up to six furlongs with a chance to extend his winning streak in the 63rd running of the $50,000 Free Press Stakes on Wednesday at Assiniboia.

A closer trained by Wendy Anderson, Magic Tiger was a bargain $6,250 claim at Golden Gate on April 2, when he ran second in a one-mile route on the synthetic Tapeta surface. The 4-year-old was shipped to Assiniboia after coming up empty in an April 22 turf experiment.

At first blush it might appear Rossa Veloce is getting some class relief in the $125,000 Dancin Renee on Sunday at Belmont Park as she’s moving into the New York-bred ranks after starts in consecutive graded stakes.

But it’s no easy spot.

“It’s a pretty competitive field,” trainer Rob Atras said. “There’s definitely some nice fillies and mares in this race. No slouches.”

Last Sunday, jockey Diego Herrera had a four-win day unique to a rider based in the Los Angeles area.

Herrera won two races in the afternoon at Santa Anita, including his first Thoroughbred stakes on Neige Blanche in the $100,000 Possibly Perfect Stakes for fillies and mares on turf. In the evening, Herrera won two more races at the Los Alamitos meeting for Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds.

Combine number of wins and win percentage and trainer Brittany Russell is having about as good a year as anyone in North America. Russell’s 76 winners through June 22 ranked 15th, and no other top-20 trainer in wins has a strike rate as high as Russell’s 28 percent. Russell, who has won at a remarkably robust clip since she began training in 2018, is going to blow past her career-best 100 winners she posted during 2022, and she’ll be expected to add to that total in the $100,000 Tale of the Cat Stakes on Sunday at Monmouth.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The paths of Mage and Arcangelo are likely destined to cross on one or more occasions during the second half of the 2023 season, beginning with the Grade 1 Travers on Aug. 26 at Saratoga. But the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winners are certainly no strangers to one another, not only having wintered and won their maidens during this year’s Gulfstream Park Championship meet but having done so from under the same roof on the Gulfstream Park backstretch.

Without trainer Manny Perez and owner Vladimir Kazakov’s Glockenberg, there would be no Hawthorne Derby. The $100,000 race, the first open stakes race of 2023 in the tattered remains of the Chicago racing schedule, drew but six entrants. Three will walk over from the Perez barn on the Hawthorne backstretch, and without them the race apparently would not have made it onto the Sunday card.

Not that any of the Perez trio has a chance to win. It’s the other three – Really Good, Act a Fool, and Out of Deductions – who are the contenders in a race carded for 1 1/8 miles on turf.

With rain projected in the area, the fate of two $100,000 turf stakes for Pennsylvania-breds on Monday at Parx Racing is at the mercy of Mother Nature.

Ninetyprcentmaddie, the 3-1 morning-line favorite in the $100,000 Crowd Pleaser for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles, wouldn’t mind if the race is moved to dirt.

“That’s just what we’re looking for,” trainer Butch Reid said.

A multiple stakes winner at Parx, Ninetyprcentmaddie has raced exclusively on the main track and enters the Crowd Pleaser following two game efforts out of town.

Questions abound regarding Monday’s $50,000 Golden Boy Stakes at Assiniboia, a six-furlong sprint with a good seven-horse field of 3-year-olds.

Will somebody press Chicago’s Gray, or will the speedy gray secure another clear lead and keep on going? Is Saxon Saga poised for another peak performance? How good are the Alberta shippers Cuban Cobra and Rough Customer?

Defending Longacres Mile winner Slew’s Tiz Whiz will face a full and competitive field when beginning his 2023 campaign in Sunday’s $50,000 Budweiser Stakes at six furlongs at Emerald Downs.

One year ago, Slew’s Tiz Whiz was a 38-1 outcast in the Budweiser when checking in fourth before reeling off three straight successes, capped by the $150,000 Longacres Mile in August.