Acoustic Ave, who made two profitable trips across New York for stakes wins at Finger Lakes last season, comes back to make his 3-year-old debut in Monday’s $50,000 Ontario County Stakes for statebred sophomores.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Grade 1 winner Last Call goes back to the grass against several quality shippers Sunday at Woodbine in the $100,000 Alywow Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies on the main course.

Last Call graduated in style third time out going a mile in the Grade 1 Natalma here in September. She was a slow-starting sixth in her only other 2-year-old outing in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 4 at Keeneland.

Liguria appears to have much in her favor heading into a competitive $150,000 Wild Applause for 3-year-old fillies Saturday at Belmont Park.

She’s the most accomplished runner in the one-mile turf race as a Grade 3 winner. Liguria boasts a strong pedigree as the War Front filly is a full sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Avenge and a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Lira. Liguria also could get an ideal trip off a few of her rivals, including Kerry and Soviet Excess.

A rainy Saturday looks possible from New York to New Jersey and much farther west to Ohio, and if the weather forecasters are correct, we’re looking at turf rain-offs and the chance of a sloppy track for the biggest race of the day, which comes in North Randall, Ohio. Let’s hope the meteorologists are mistaken while the predictions here prove prescient.

Ohio Derby

Train to Artemus easily is the most likely winner of the $100,000 Goldwood Stakes on Saturday at Monmouth Park – if she gets to run.

The Jersey Shore late this week was locked into a rainy cycle to extend through the weekend, and if the forecast holds, the Goldwood, carded for older fillies and mares at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf, could wind up at 5 1/2 furlongs on dirt.

Horsemen with eligible runners are aware: Nine are in the main body of the Goldwood, with five more equine females entered main track only.

Two Phil’s finished a gallant second in the Kentucky Derby, after which he was freshened for a summer and fall campaign. His highly anticipated return comes in Saturday’s Grade 3, $500,000 Ohio Derby at Thistledown.

He leads a field of eight 3-year-olds that includes Bishops Bay and Henry Q, second and third, respectively, to subsequent Belmont Stakes winner Arcangelo last out; Wood Memorial winner Lord Miles, who is returning off an unplanned layoff; and Texas Derby winner Hayes Strike.

Horses from nowhere near England headline the featured race on the final day of the most famous race meeting in England, with Artorius and Wellington near the top of the early betting market for the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes on Saturday at Royal Ascot.

The Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee, renamed this year in honor of the late British monarch, is worth $1.25 million and was the first million-pound race at Royal Ascot. That’s a curiosity because the six-furlong, straight-course contest hardly caters to the strength of English bloodstock, found at longer distances.

Multiple Grade 1 winner Matareya, considered one of the top female sprinters in the country, is using Saturday’s Grade 3, $225,000 Chicago Stakes at Ellis Park as a prep toward the summer and fall’s major events for her division – the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita.

But the Chicago is far from a gimme for Matareya. Grade 1 winner Society and Grade 3 winner Hidden Connection, both cutting back from two-turn races to seven furlongs, make this small field of six a very intriguing one.

The next winner Juan Hernandez rides will be his 100th victory of 2023. The milestone can easily occur on Kings River Knight in Saturday’s $100,000 Bertrando Stakes at a mile at Los Alamitos.

Hernandez was the leading rider at the Santa Anita winter and spring meetings that ended last Sunday. Kings River Knight is his first mount of the Los Alamitos meeting that began Friday.

Trainer Dan Markle holds a strong hand in the form of two runners entered among the group of eight in Saturday’s feature race at Emerald Downs, a $15,000 claimer for nonwinners-of-two over six furlongs.

Markle will saddle Lassie Cat, a 4-year-old by Cat Burglar, and Mary Walker, a 3-year-old by Grazen. Both raced at Golden Gate Fields last month before shipping north.