SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though he knows the older male division on the East Coast is stronger than that on the West Coast, trainer Eric Guillot decided to ship Moreno across the country for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga.

In fact, the better company is the reason he came.

Moreno is a need-the-lead type who has to be in front of other horses in order to be successful. In California, Moreno has run into cheap-speed horses, denying him the early lead in races like the Californian and Gold Cup, and he was beaten in both.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A quarter of the way through the 147th Saratoga meet, and business is booming, with double-digit increases in all-sources and ontrack handle.

Through the first 10 days of the 40-day meet, all-sources handle on Saratoga’s races was $159,069,259, an 18.2 percent increase over the $134,505,987 handled through the same time period last year. Ontrack handle was $39,068,593, a 19 percent increase from 2014, when handle was $32,831,717.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A quarter of the way through the 147th Saratoga meet, and business is booming, with double-digit increases in all-sources and ontrack handle.

Through the first 10 days of the 40-day meet, all-sources handle on Saratoga’s races was $159,069,259, an 18.2 percent increase over the $134,505,987 handled through the same time period last year. Ontrack handle was $39,068,593, a 19 percent increase from 2014, when handle was $32,831,717.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Victories by longshots Goodtolook ($70.50) and Den’s Legacy ($45.20) in back-to-back races Monday helped produce a $206,133 pick six carryover into Wednesday’s card.

The pick six Wednesday begins on race 5 at 3:12 p.m. Eastern and includes three turf races and the $100,000 Shine Again Stakes for fillies and mares at seven furlongs on dirt.

The forecast for Wednesday calls for partly cloudy skies with just a 20 percent chance of precipitation.

The two Chicago-area Thoroughbred tracks have asked the Illinois Racing Board to approve 2016 live racing schedules that would further reduce the number of live racing dates on the struggling circuit.

Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill., requested approval for 74 live racing days that would run from early May until late September, with races held four days a week in July and August and three days a week in the other months. Last year, Arlington requested 79 dates.

Jill Jellison, who rode for 30 years, primarily on the New England circuit, died last week following a long battle with cancer. She was 51.

Jellison won her first race aboard Mighty Peter at Finger Lakes in 1982. The Rhode Island native posted 1,989 victories during her career for earnings of more than $13.5 million. Her best season was in 1989, when she rode 241 winners and won the riding title that summer at Rockingham Park. She was finally forced to retire in 2013 due to her illness after winning 35 races from 147 mounts that year, a 23 percent success rate, at Suffolk Downs.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – We interrupt the delirium that is American Pharoah-mania to present a pretty sweet race for the older males in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga.

Seven of the 10 expected entrants for the Whitney, which offers a fees-paid berth into the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, are Grade 1 winners, including last year’s Whitney winner, Moreno, who could be sent off at double-digit odds in this year’s renewal.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – American Pharoah’s tour de force in the Haskell Invitational on Sunday resulted in a record-breaking day business-wise for Monmouth Park.

All-sources handle on the day was $20,024,509, shattering Monmouth’s previous non-Breeders’ Cup record of $17,642,955 set on Haskell Day in 2008, when Big Brown won the track’s signature race. In a rarity, Monmouth Park handled more money than Saratoga, where $17,074,441 was bet Sunday.

When American Pharoah won the Belmont Stakes on June 6, he became only the 12th Triple Crown winner, and the first since 1978. Of the previous 11 horses, 10 continued to race, and in most cases they only further burnished their gold-plated accomplishments. American Pharoah is scheduled to make his next start Aug. 2 in the Haskell, which will be the start of his post-Triple Crown campaign. Each day leading up to the Haskell, we will take a look at what happened to the previous 11 Triple Crown winners after they won the Belmont. 

DEL MAR, Calif. – Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux will appear before Del Mar stewards on Aug. 15 for a hearing regarding a failed Breathalyzer test on Wednesday, the racing board announced on Friday.

Desormeaux was removed from his final two mounts Wednesday by track stewards after failing a Breathalyzer test after riding the first four races on the program. After track stewards conducted an informal hearing with Desormeaux on Thursday, the jockey was allowed to continue riding until a hearing is held.