For reasons largely unique to Quarter Horse racing, Paul Jones is the only trainer in history who has won the All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs and the Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos in the same year.

The All American Futurity is the sport’s leading race for 2-year-olds, and the Champion of Champions the top race for 3-year-olds and up. Jones, who accomplished the feat in 2006 with No Secrets Here and Wave Carver, may have company on that short list this year.

Two recent wins in lucrative handicaps and a third in a Group 3 race last month have made Lord Ardmore the favorite and topweight for the $137,100 Wyong Gold Cup at Wyong Racecourse in Australia on Thursday.

Lord Ardmore’s recent form and the race distance of 1 5/16 miles suggest the 5-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding can win for the sixth time in his 21^st start in the 11-runner Wyong Gold Cup.

DEL MAR, Calif. -- A commemorative plaque that lists many of the all-time great runners to have competed at Del Mar will be unveiled Thursday night, following the races, at the downtown Del Mar Plaza, located at the northeast corner of Pacific Coast Highway and 15th Street.

The plaque, to be displayed on the upper level of the plaza, will be unveiled during a ceremony lasting for one hour, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Pacific.

FRANKFORT, KY. -- Attorneys for Bob Baffert on Tuesday wrapped up their side of an appeal of a 90-day suspension the trainer has already served by reiterating that a horse Baffert trained, the 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, was never injected with a regulated corticosteroid and that rules applying to the drug should not have been used to punish him.

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Attorneys for Bob Baffert on Monday began their case in a hearing to contest the trainer’s already-served 90-day suspension by pressing ahead on a contention that Kentucky’s rules do not apply to a treatment Baffert has acknowledged his staff repeatedly applied to the horse Medina Spirit in the lead-up to last year’s Kentucky Derby.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Bill Mott was sitting in a golf cart outside his barn Sunday morning and accepting congratulations for three stakes victories accrued in less than 24 hours.

Mott, however, was more interested in looking forward than back.

“It’s all history now, it’s all in the record book, we’re looking for the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the Flower Bowl,” Mott said.

Yes, Mott will have Olympiad and War Like Goddess as top contenders in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup and Grade 2, $600,000 Flower Bowl at Saratoga.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Gufo has been very good for a long time, although it appears he saves his absolute best for Saratoga.

Gufo returned to the Spa for the first time since winning the 2021 Sword Dancer and turned in a carbon copy of that performance right down to the 104 Beyer Speed Figure he earned for his half-length victory over Mira Mission in the Grade 1 turf fixture here Saturday. In his only other Saratoga appearance, Gufo finished a late-running second, beaten a head by Domestic Spending, as a 3-year-old in the 2020 Saratoga Derby Invitational.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Last year, after Malathaat won the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga, Todd Pletcher elected to train her up to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, in which she finished a very creditable third, a half-length behind upset winner Marche Lorraine.

This year, after Malathaat won Saturday’s Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga, Pletcher plans on taking a different tack toward the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 5 at Keeneland.

Pletcher said Sunday he will point Malathaat to the Grade 1, $600,000 Spinster, a 1 1/8-mile race at Keeneland on Oct. 9.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Tyler Baze resumes riding at Del Mar on Sunday after an absence of three weeks that included a week he took off for a personal reason and nearly two weeks in which he failed to clear a required drug test for a prescribed medication.

Baze is booked to ride Club Cal in the sixth race, Lady Maryann in the seventh race, and Floral Essence in the ninth race.

Baze was cleared to ride shortly before 9 a.m. on Sunday, according to Del Mar steward Luis Jauregui and the rider’s agent, Jack Carava.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Having taken control of the 3-year-old division with his dominant victory in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga, Epicenter will now be prepared to take on a tough group of older horses this fall as he targets the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Nov. 5.

Leading that group of older horses are Flightline, the undefeated colt who makes his second start of 2022 in Saturday’s Pacific Classic at Del Mar, and Life Is Good, a three-time graded stakes winner this year including the Grade 1 Whitney four weeks ago.