ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – One of the fastest 2-year-old fillies in North America so far this year is training quietly along at Arlington.

Catapult, second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs last November, is scheduled to start in the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile on Oct. 5 at Santa Anita after being withdrawn from Thursday’s Old Friends Stakes at Kentucky Downs.

Catapult was never sent to Kentucky, trainer John Sadler said Friday. The $200,000 City of Hope Mile will be Catapult’s first start since a fifth in the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes on July 21 at Del Mar and is designed as a prep for the BC Mile on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita.

Bellafina, who was third in the Grade 1 Test Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 3 in her only start of the summer, is tentatively scheduled to return in the Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Parx Racing on Sept. 21.

Trainer Simon Callaghan said the $1 million Cotillion Stakes at 1 1/16 miles is preferred over the Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks at seven furlongs on the same day.

“The travel there is problematic,” he said of Charles Town. “It’s a flight and an extremely long van ride.”

BENSALEM, Pa. – The gate to the Parx main track by the half-mile pole was still closed as Maximum Security, escorted by a pony, made his way down the horse path.

As a maintenance man went to slide the gate open, trainer Jason Servis instructed exercise rider Alvaro Tomas to take Maximum Security further down the path.

“I just want to get my horse on the track,” Servis said in a tone belying his easy-going manner.

FRANKLIN, Ky. – Besides the two Dueling Grounds stakes for 3-year-olds, the Sunday card at turf-only Kentucky Downs also will feature a trio of designated preps toward the 2019 Claiming Crown at Gulfstream Park.

All three of the $100,000 races are restricted to horses that have raced for a claiming tag of $25,000 or less since Jan. 1, 2018. Unlike with most other Kentucky Downs races, there are no purse restrictions in regard to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund.

Jockey Drayden Van Dyke, unseated from Eight Rings in Monday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, was released from a San Diego area hospital on Wednesday and is targeting a return to riding for the start of the Santa Anita autumn meeting on Sept. 27.

Van Dyke was unseated when Eight Rings ducked sharply to the inside a furlong into the seven-furlong Del Mar Futurity. Eight Rings bumped Storm the Court, who stepped on the fallen Van Dyke’s right arm in the incident, the rider said.

A plethora of jockeys will be serving days at the start of the Belmont fall meeting.

Irad Ortiz Jr., the leading rider in the country in wins and purse money won, will start a five-day suspension Friday for an infraction that occurred in the sixth race on July 5 at Belmont. Ortiz was aboard Bacchanalia, who finished fourth but interfered with fifth-place finisher Madame Orbe. Though there was a stewards’ inquiry into the incident, the order of finish was not changed.

Ortiz will be eligible to return Sept. 13.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Steve Asmussen said that plans have not yet been firmed up for Basin, Shoplifted, and Gozilla, the first three finishers from Monday’s Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga.

Asmussen would like to keep the three separated, and there are three Grade 1 stakes for 2-year-olds in late September and early October – the American Pharoah on Sept. 27 at Santa Anita, and the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland and the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont, both on Oct. 5.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Shancelot, the freakishly fast 3-year-old sprinter, will take on older horses in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Oct. 5, trainer Jorge Navarro said Wednesday.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Christophe Clement hopes to carry the momentum of an extremely successful Saratoga meet into the fall.

Clement won 13 races at Saratoga, five with his 2-year-olds. Clement’s only better Saratoga meet came in 2015 when he won 15 races.

“Obviously, we have a nice group of 2-year-olds, which is fun,” Clement said Wednesday morning at Belmont Park. “I’m working with my son [Miguel], my team – it’s very rewarding.”