SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Three years ago, Bitumen won his debut at Churchill Downs and came back to win his next start in the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga.

Eddie Kenneally, trainer of Bitumen, will hope for history to repeat itself Saturday when he sends out By Your Side in the $150,000 Sanford Stakes for 2-year-olds at six furlongs.

Like Bitumen, By Your Side won his debut, beating even-money favorite Basin by a nose at Churchill Downs. By Your Side will make his second start against just four opponents in the Sanford.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It’s often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

When it comes to the Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga, trainer Graham Motion is out of his mind.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say it’s become a bit of an obsession of mine,” said Motion, who with Secret Message will run in his 12th Diana as a trainer still in search of his first win.

“It’s actually been a race I’ve always wanted to win,” said Motion, whose first starter in the race came in 1997.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – “It’s been a hell of a year,” trainer Jason Servis said Monday. And the year is only half over.

Servis will be at Saratoga this week to kick off the second half of a campaign during which he has already won 79 races for purses totaling nearly $5 million and 15 stakes, seven of them graded. And those imposing figures do not count the one that got away, Maximum Security’s apparent victory and subsequent controversial disqualification in the Kentucky Derby.

Mine That Bird, winner of the 2009 Kentucky Derby, will make an appearance Saturday at Ruidoso Downs, according to a press release from the New Mexico track. He is being feted in conjunction with his Friday night induction into the Ruidoso Downs Racehorse Hall of Fame.

Others entering the Ruidoso Hall on Friday are Harriett Peckham, who alone or in partnership owned Easy Jet, Go Man Go, and Rocket Bar; Leo Wood, who trained All American Futurity winner Pie In The Sky; and Johnny Cox, who was aboard Mr Kid Charge for his win in the All American Futurity.

Elate will be favored over eight rivals Saturday when she attempts to win the Grade 2, $750,000 Delaware Handicap for the second year in a row. The card also includes four $100,000 stakes that comprise Round 3 of the MATCH Series.

Trained by Bill Mott, Elate is the 122-pound highweight in the Del Cap and will concede two to 10 pounds to the competition. If she is successful, she will become the seventh two-time winner of the race since it was established in 1937 and the first since Royal Delta won it in 2012 and 2013. Three-time champion Royal Delta also was trained by Mott.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Josie Carroll is taking a wait-and-see approach regarding who she’ll run in the $400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes, the middle leg of the Canadian Triple Crown on July 23 at Fort Erie.

In the $1 million Queen’s Plate on June 29 at Woodbine, Carroll saddled the 5-2 second choice, Avie’s Flatter, who finished a valiant second. Back in fourth was her other runner, the lightly raced He’s a Macho Man, who rallied belatedly in the slow-paced Tapeta event.

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer was informed by Del Mar officials during a meeting late Monday that the track was not willing to let him run horses at its meet that begins next week, a situation his attorney, Drew Couto, decried Tuesday.

“Del Mar is unwilling to take a public-relations risk is the easiest summary of it,” Couto said Tuesday morning when asked the results of the meeting, which took place at Del Mar. “Regardless of how supportive they are of Jerry, they don’t feel they want to take the PR risk.

Mid-Atlantic rider Alex Cintron won his 1,000th race in North America on Monday aboard Lorden’s Love in the fourth race at Delaware Park.

Lorden’s Love, who is trained by Scott Lake, paid $15.40 in the $12,500 claiming race.

Cintron is currently riding in both Delaware and Maryland. He leads the Thoroughbred standings at Delaware and through six races Monday trails Carol Cedeno by one win in the overall standings. Delaware often closes out its cards with an Arabian race.

The Arlington racing office on Sunday listed 13 names as possible runners for Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 American Derby, the local prep for the Grade 1 Secretariat next month. The American Derby is one of four turf stakes on the Million Preview Day card and appears to be coming up with the deepest, most interesting field on the program.

Trainer Tony Mitchell late Monday morning was replacing a couple broken fans set up to blow into stalls in his Arlington shed row. The stall of the stable star, Sir Anthony, was never allowed to get too warm.

“He’s got the biggest fan – and a big fan club,” said Mitchell, who himself had traveled with Sir Anthony for a successful holiday trip last week to Prairie Meadows, where Sir Anthony won the Grade 3, $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker on Friday night.