Every racing calendar has June 9 circled in bright red crayon, but not all for the same reason.

Yes, there will be a Belmont Stakes presented at Belmont Park, where Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Justify will attempt to become the 13th winner of the Triple Crown. The house will be packed.

Up in Toronto, on the same afternoon, the Woodbine Oaks will highlight a Woodbine program that also will include the presentation of the 2018 Avelino Gomez Memorial Award to Emma-Jayne Wilson, who is still in a state of giddy disbelief over this week’s announcement of the honor.

The oddest thing will occur at Santa Anita Park on Saturday. The Grade 1 Beholder Mile, with a purse of $400,000, will feature a field of summit race significance. Amidst a field of six, champion Unique Bella will face her 4-year-old nemesis Paradise Woods, along with Vale Dori, a five-time local stakes winner and last year’s narrow Beholder runner-up.

Itsinthepost had just polished off the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham at Santa Anita last Saturday afternoon when Jeff Mullins turned to Tyler Baze and said, “C’mon. Let’s go down.”

Baze hesitated. He was in a tight emotional switch. He had just watched another jockey win under the horse he’d ridden in 26 of his 30 American starts. It was tough enough showing up for the race. Now he was asked to be part of the winner’s circle ceremony. In street clothes. On the ground.

“I said, c’mon,” Mullins repeated. “You’re coming with us.”

So he did.

We already know Justify is a very special horse. He sealed that deal when he became the first in 136 years to win the Kentucky Derby without having raced at 2, and only strengthened his case when he won the Preakness to now stand on the verge of becoming only the 13th to ever sweep the Triple Crown.

And we already know Justify is a fast horse. No 3-year-old so far this year has bettered the 107 Beyer Figure he earned winning the Santa Anita Derby. In fact, Justify currently owns three of the five highest 3-year-old Beyers this year at any distance.

Upon arriving at Del Mar last summer for the Pacific Classic, Peter Fluor lingered in the ground-floor hallway near the clubhouse escalators to admire a collection of equine portraits that depicted the various Classic winners through the years.

A few hours later, after Collected carried the Speedway Stable colors of Fluor and partner K.C. Weiner to victory in the Classic’s 27th running, the only image burned into the owner’s brain was the sight of their handsome chestnut defeating the heavily favored Arrogate.

If you’re waiting for City of Light to run a bad race, bring a book. Like, for instance, “War and Peace.”

He was slow to get rolling – most huge boulders are – but he was never anywhere but right there through his first four starts in conditioned company. For City of Light’s first stakes appearance, still with only a maiden win to his name, trainer Michael McCarthy chose the Grade 1 Malibu on Santa Anita’s opening day last Dec. 26. Such a move appeared ambitious on paper, but only to those who were not spending time around City of Light every day.

Never mind how a horse can lose the Triple Crown. That’s been done to death. Based on the speed, class, and broad-shouldered determination of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Justify, it will be more entertaining to wonder how he might win the dang thing, and where he will fit in the history of racing’s most treasured achievement if he does.

Clearly, winning three races in a span of five weeks is not as simple as it sounds, and the dozen horses who have done it went through the ordeal with a variety of outcomes.

The endangered species list maintained by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service includes the blue whale, the red wolf, the black-footed ferret, the ivory-billed woodpecker, and the green sea turtle.

Among others endangered are the Utah prairie dog, the Florida panther, the Puerto Rican parrot, the Maryland darter, the Alabama beach mouse, the California condor, the Hawaiian goose, and the Virginia big-eared bat.

The 1993 season in Thoroughbred racing produced a juicy reel of highlights, with history made left and right. But in the end it belonged to Michael Earl Smith, the kid from New Mexico who had taken New York by storm.

The 158-year-old Woodlawn Vase, symbolic of victory in the Preakness Stakes, is commonly valued at $1 million. That’s nice round number assuring its place in opening paragraphs such as this.

The vase lives in the Baltimore Art Museum and is carefully trotted out each third Saturday in May to be on display at Pimlico for the second jewel of the Triple Crown. Winning owners can look, and even touch, but they can’t take it home.