ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Favored Spring Venture won the $262,900 Natalma Stakes comfortably at Woodbine on Saturday over another Mark Casse-trained 2-year-old filly, Spring in the Air.

Spring Venture was rank early while racing three wide at the rear of the first flight in the one-mile turf event. Shenandoah Lady and Coconut Shrimp dueled up front over the yielding ground until about the eighth pole, where Spring Venture found room before kicking away to a 1 3/4-length score, in 1:37.27.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Groupie Doll most likely will have two easy workouts at her Churchill Downs base prior to making her final start before the Breeders’ Cup in the Oct. 6 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland, trainer Buff Bradley said Saturday morning.

“I haven’t mapped it out exactly, but that’d probably be what we’d want, a couple of easy half-miles the next two weekends,” Bradley said.

Always Kitten has a clear objective this fall: the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.

“That’s what we’re pointing for,” said Mike Maker, who trains Always Kitten for Ken and Sarah Ramsey.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Wise Dan, one of the most talented and versatile horses on the continent, stands out in the 16th running of the $1 million Woodbine Mile, and should be the prohibitive favorite in the Grade 1 turf event.

The Woodbine Mile heads an outstanding Sunday card that also includes three other stakes: the Grade 1, $500,000 Northern Dancer Turf, which is the prep for the Canadian International; the Grade 2, $300,000 Canadian; and the $150,000 Ontario Derby, a newly minted Grade 3.

Algorithms, one of the early leaders of the 3-year-old division after his victory in the Holy Bull Stakes in January, returned to trainer Todd Pletcher’s Belmont Park barn on Wednesday and was on the track Thursday morning.

Algorithms was sidelined with a fractured splint bone discovered the morning of the Fountain of Youth in February. He was the morning-line favorite.

POMONA, Calif. – The sprint division in California just got a lot more interesting.

Reneesgotzip, the 3-year-old filly who blazed to a 1:08.23 comeback win Sept. 5 at Del Mar, will step outside her division to face champion Amazombie on Oct. 6 in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, a six-furlong stakes formerly named the Ancient Title.

Trainer Peter Miller announced Thursday that Reneesgotzip would target the $250,000 Sprint Championship, with an eye toward the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Are You Kidding Me, who won the allowance prep for the Summer Stakes over a mediocre group, will jump up to Grade 2 stakes company Saturday at Woodbine in the $250,000 Summer. The one-mile grass race for 2-year-olds is a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In event, meaning the winner receives a paid trip to the BC Juvenile Turf in November at Santa Anita.

Saturday’s card also includes the $250,000 Natalma, a Win and You’re In for the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Leading trainer Mark Casse will spring into action Saturday at Woodbine, when he runs Spring in the Air and Spring Venture in the $250,000 Natalma Stakes.

The Grade 2 turf route for 2-year-old fillies is an important Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In event, with the winner earning a fees-paid trip to the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf in November at Santa Anita. The Natalma has produced the last two BC Juvenile Fillies Turf winners, More Than Real, who finished second in the Natalma, and Stephanie’s Kitten, who was third in the Natalma.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Hunters Bay will be looking to earn a distinctive spot in Woodbine Mile history here Sunday when he becomes the first horse to attempt to win the Grade 1, $1 million feature without a previous start on turf.

On Wednesday, Hunters Bay felt a turf course under his hooves for the first time when he galloped the 1 1/2-mile length of the E.P. Taylor layout under exercise rider Martine Pare.

Java’s War and Brown Almighty, who finished a neck apart in the $150,000 Sunday Silence last Saturday at Louisiana Downs, will likely have a rematch at Keeneland. The Grade 3, $150,000 Bourbon at 1 1/16 miles on turf is the next spot penciled in for both horses, their trainers said Tuesday. The Bourbon is Oct. 7, and it is a Win and You’re In race, with the winner guaranteed a spot in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 3.