DEL MAR, Calif. - The groundwork is nearly complete.

In coming weeks, the 5-year-old mares Ag Bullet and Sweet Azteca will start in graded stakes designed as prep races for the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

Sweet Azteca will be favored to win the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar next Sunday.

Ag Bullet is being readied for a start in the Grade 2 Ladies Turf Sprint, a $2 million race for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs at Kentucky Downs on Aug. 30.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Indispensable, the winner of an allowance race at Del Mar on July 19, and Tarantino, third in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap on July 26, are set to start in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 30, their trainers said on Sunday.

Both will be longshots in the $1 million Pacific Classic, which is run at 1 1/4 miles. The probable field is led by Nysos, winner of the San Diego Handicap in his last start, and possibly the star 3-year-old Journalism, who won the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 19.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s stranglehold on California’s 2-year-old division shows no sign of abating.

A week after he swept the two Grade 2 six-furlong stakes for juveniles at Del Mar – with Desert Gate in the Best Pal Stakes and Himika in the Sorrento Stakes – Baffert won two maiden races at 5 1/2 furlongs for 2-year-olds with the colt Litmus Test on Saturday and Explora on Sunday.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – None of the 26 3-year-olds Sovereignty defeated in winning four graded stakes this year, including the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, were entered against him for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga. In fact, just four 3-year-olds – only one who is a graded stakes winner – will challenge him in what is the smallest Travers lineup since 1994, when Holy Bull won.

Still, Bill Mott, the trainer of Sovereignty, is not taking anything for granted.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - After graduating from Louisiana State University in summer 1983, Tom Amoss came to Saratoga to spend a week. While he was here, he saw Devil’s Bag win a maiden race by 7 1/2 lengths, the first of five wins for that colt on his way to being crowned 2-year-old champion. 

“It never left me, it’s a race I still remember,” said Amoss, who began training horses on his own in 1987. “I’m hopeful that this horse goes on to do something really special, because I think it’ll be a maiden race that people remember, just like I remember [Devil's Bag's] race.” 

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Following her victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga, dual-surface graded stakes winner Nitrogen will remain on the dirt for at least the remainder of this year with the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 1 at Del Mar as the year-end goal. 

Trainer Mark Casse said he plans to run Nitrogen once before the Distaff, but as of Sunday morning had not yet figured out where that race would be. 

“We know what our final target is, we just don’t know how we’re going to get there,” Casse said. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Jockey Luis Rivera Jr. showed up for work at trainer Kenny McPeek’s barn a little before 5:30 a.m. Saturday because, well, that’s what he’s done most of the summer. Never mind that he was at Saratoga Hospital until around 8 p.m. Friday getting his hip examined following a spill he was involved in during the races. 

DEL MAR, Calif. - Journalism, winner of the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 19 and three other stakes this year, worked a half-mile in 48 seconds at Del Mar on Saturday for a potential start in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on Aug. 30.

A half-interest in reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna has been purchased by John Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm. A release announcing the deal also revealed the new partnership’s intentions to race Thorpedo Anna through 2026, if she continues to hold good form.

Thorpedo Anna is expected to make her next start in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on Aug. 23 at Saratoga. The 4-year-old daughter of Fast Anna has been racing for a partnership of Brookdale Racing, Mark Edwards, breeder Judy Hicks, and the McPeek family’s Magdalena Racing.