DEL MAR, Calif. – Leucothea, winner of a $62,500 claimer for 2-year-old maidens by 14 1/2 lengths on Thursday at Del Mar, may start in the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes for fillies on Sept. 1 at Saratoga.

The $350,000 Spinaway Stakes is run at seven furlongs and is the championship race for 2-year-old fillies at the Saratoga meeting.

On Thursday, Leucothea took the lead shortly after the start and rapidly pulled away, finishing 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:03.89. Ridden by Abel Cedillo, Leucothea earned a 92 Beyer Speed Figure.

DEL MAR, Calif. – With the seven-figure yearling Matera and the homebred Stellar Sound, Don Alberto Stable have two of the leading contenders in a maiden special weight race for fillies at six furlongs on Sunday at Del Mar.

The two fillies, both by Tapit, will have the field surrounded when the race begins. Matera drew the rail, while Stellar Sound has the outside post in a field of seven.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Multiple stakes winners Bellafina and Marley’s Freedom are likely to have their next races at the Santa Anita autumn meeting, and could meet for the first time in the Grade 3 L.A. Woman Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on Oct. 5.

Trainer Bob Baffert said Thursday that Marley’s Freedom will not be sent to Saratoga for the Grade 1 Ballerina Stakes next Saturday, a race she won in 2018.

“I want to freshen her a bit,” Baffert said.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Two of California’s leading milers are bound for stakes at Kentucky Downs next month.

Catapult, second in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Mile, and Next Shares, who won the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland last October, are scheduled to ship to Kentucky Downs in coming weeks in favor of a start in Sunday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Mile.

The New Jersey Racing Commission has denied a request for a stay from the suspended trainer Aparna Battula, which could mean a lengthy break from the races for the 31-year-old trainer.

Battula, a former jockey, was summarily suspended by the racing commission last Friday after investigators found a cache of hypodermic needles and medication vials in her tack room at Monmouth Park during a search two weeks earlier, according to the commission.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer is permitted to run horses at New York Racing Association tracks and is planning to ship King Jack here next week for the Grade 1, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes on Aug. 24.

“We’re coming,” Hollendorfer said Thursday. “It was relayed to me we would be able to nominate and run.”

Patrick McKenna, a NYRA spokesman, said, “Jerry Hollendorfer is a licensed trainer in New York State who is permitted to ship in and enter horses to race at all NYRA tracks including Saratoga Race Course.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- The Aug. 24 Travers Stakes lost two of its major players on Thursday when Maximum Security and Game Winner were removed from consideration for the Grade 1, $1.25 million race by their trainers.

Early Thursday, trainer Bob Baffert said that Game Winner, the champion 2-year-old of 2018 and recent authoritative winner of the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby, came down with a virus and will be forced to miss the Travers.

“Can’t make it,” Baffert said by phone from Southern California.

One of the most important weekends in Quarter Horse racing gets under way Friday at Ruidoso Downs with the running of the first card of trials for the $3 million All American Futurity, but there is some uncertainty surrounding the proceedings in New Mexico.

The Evangeline Downs meet for Quarter Horses that opens Sept. 27 will again be led by the Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Louisiana Million. The race will be the richest of the 46-date season, which runs through Dec. 14.

The LQHBA Louisiana Million will be run Dec. 7 on a program that also will include the $150,000-added LQHBA Breeders Derby, the $30,000 Scoopies Leaving You Stakes, and the $40,000 LQHBA Invitational. Trials for the Louisiana Million will be held Nov. 15. 

Fair Grounds in New Orleans will pack a whole lot of racing into its 10-date meet for Quarter Horses that opens Friday. The season runs through Sept. 7.

The first card of the meet features three stakes, led by the $40,000 Treme, a restricted Grade 3 that drew a field of 10. The stakes run consecutively, starting in the seventh with the $25,000 Gentilly Dash that drew nine. The $40,000 Audubon goes with 10.