ELMONT, N.Y. – The consistent millionaire Warrant heads a competitive edition of the Grade 2, $250,000 Brooklyn Stakes for 4-year-olds and up at 1 1/2 miles Saturday on the Belmont Stakes undercard.

Conditioned by Brad Cox, Warrant captured the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby as a 3-year-old in 2021 before embarking on a productive 2022 campaign. Although winless from five starts last year, Warrant placed in four graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap. He finished second, beaten 2 3/4 lengths in last year’s Brooklyn.

Trainer John Servis was bullish on Leader of the Band’s chances when the mare made her 2023 debut in the $102,000 Serena’s Song Stakes on May 14 at Monmouth Park. Leader of the Band ran a winning race, her 92 Beyer Speed Figure among the best of her 18-start career – and she still lost. A Chad Brown-trained filly named Distinctlypossible stepped up from a first-level allowance race and boosted her Beyer from 80 to 94, beating Leader of the Band by 1 1/4 lengths.

ARCADIA, Calif. – A Grade 2 on dirt is the top race Saturday at Santa Anita, but a Grade 3 on turf offers greater appeal at half the prize money.

Perhaps the only significant thing the $200,000 Santa Margarita and $100,000 Honeymoon have in common is both are nine furlongs. Just five fillies and mares entered the Santa Margarita, race 4, and anything short of decisive victory by front-runner Adare Manor will be a surprise.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Forte didn’t make the starting gate for either the Kentucky Derby or Preakness, but the results of those races may have only served to validate the credentials of the 2-year-old champion.

Mage won the Kentucky Derby. Forte beat him twice this spring. National Treasure and Blazing Sevens ran one-two, heads apart, in the Preakness. Forte beat them both in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Just after Up to the Mark’s powerful victory in the Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill Downs, his trainer, Todd Pletcher, was asked if he’d trained another horse whose star had so quickly risen after a switch from dirt to turf.

“Colonel Liam comes to mind,” Pletcher said.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Elite Power, the reigning champion sprinter, seeks his seventh consecutive victory as the 4-5 morning-line favorite in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 True North Stakes for 4-year-olds and up traveling 6 1/2 furlongs at Belmont Park.

Trained by Bill Mott for Juddmonte, Elite Power burst onto the scene last fall with an authoritative 5 3/4-length victory in the Grade 2 Vosburgh contested during the Belmont at Aqueduct meet.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Handicappers will have their work cut out trying to solve the puzzle that is Saturday’s $400,000 Woody Stephens Stakes at Belmont Park. The seven-furlong dash drew a full and extremely competitive field of 13 3-year-olds, one of whom will become a Grade 1 winner for the first time.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Though the funding mechanism is now in place to construct a new Belmont Park, there is still much to be learned about the project. When could construction begin, what does it entail, and what will it look like when it’s done?

Some answers could be forthcoming as early as August when the New York Racing Association hopes to reveal plans to the Franchise Oversight Board, a monitoring body put in place years ago by the state to oversee NYRA’s business practices.

Itsallabouttheride, winner of the 2022 Irish Day Stakes, will make his yearly bow when facing six others in a first-level allowance race over six furlongs Saturday at Emerald Downs.

Itsallabouttheride will race without blinkers for the first time, and trainer Bonnie Jenne said, “He’s training well now. Last two works were very good.” Jenne added that she “took the blinkers off after he worked four times” this year.

The son of Harbor the Gold has given good account of himself in each and every start, and Jenne said she is “looking forward to a good year with him.”

On April 18 at Keeneland in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile, Chez Pierre made fondue out of Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Modern Games and toasted On the Mark, who returned with an emphatic Grade 1 victory of his own in the Old Forester Turf Classic. Tres magnifique! Anything comparable to that performance and Chez Pierre’s six rivals Saturday at Belmont Park in the Poker Stakes might as well fold their hands.

Eight are entered in the Poker, a one-turn turf mile, but Bourbon Calling runs only if the race is rained onto dirt.