ELMONT, N.Y. – Nearly six months in, the race for the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old male is about as wide open as it was on New Year’s Day, setting the stage for a compelling second half of the season, with races like the Travers and Pennsylvania Derby looming large.

For the third time in the last four years, all three Triple Crown races were won by a different horse. In both 2016 and 2017, the Travers proved pivotal, as the winner both those years went on to claim the title.

Mr Money Bags notched the third stakes win of his young career earlier this month and is now being pointed for the Grade 3, $300,000 Super Derby at his Louisiana Downs base, said trainer Mike Neatherlin.

It was a record-setting Triple Crown, even if two of the records came with asterisks.

Handle records were set for every race in the Triple Crown this year, as well as their undercards, although the records for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes and its undercard were the ones that drew the asterisks. Those records were set for a Belmont in which a Triple Crown was not on the line. Since handle and attendance totals for a Triple Crown try are supercharged and the race struggles to command attention from a mass audience when no Triple Crown is possible, it’s a legitimate record.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Following three productive turf starts this winter at Gulfstream Park by Melmich, trainer Kevin Attard said he would likely focus on turf this season for the horse, beginning with the Grade 3, $125,000 Singspiel Stakes over 1 1/2 miles at Woodbine on June 22.

Attard said he would also nominate Melmich to the Grade 3, $125,000 Dominion Day Stakes over 1 1/4 miles on Tapeta on June 30 as a backup option.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Historically, horses that run well in the Woodbine Oaks and Plate Trial Stakes have gone on to have success in the Queen’s Plate. Following Saturday’s running of the Oaks and the Plate Trial, connections of the respective winners, Desert Ride in the Oaks and Pay for Peace in the Plate Trial, said the Queen’s Plate would be under consideration.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Mitole, McKinzie, and Thunder Snow, the first three finishers from Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.2 million Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park, were all scheduled to return to their home bases by the beginning of the week, but all three could very well make their next starts in Saratoga this summer.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Times are dark at Santa Anita Park, which on Sunday declined a recommendation from the California Horse Racing Board to suspend racing for the final seven days of the meet in the wake of another equine fatality on Saturday.

Daily Racing Form reported earlier that Formal Dude sustained a fractured pelvis in the 10th race Saturday and was later euthanized.

Bad fortune continued Sunday when a 3-year-old filly collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack near the conclusion of an allowance turf race.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Jonathan Thomas had himself a few anxious moments while watching his 2018 Travers winner Catholic Boy work over the Belmont Park training track shortly before 8 a.m. on Sunday.

Trainer Jason Servis said that he was not entirely pleased with Maximum Security on Sunday and that he planned to have blood work done on his 3-year-old star.

Although Servis wouldn’t rule out a start in next Sunday’s $150,000 Pegasus at Monmouth Park, rain is in the forecast over the next few days, and Maximum Security would need to have a workout and his blood work come back clean in order to start.

ELMONT, N.Y. – He may not have had a presence in the Belmont Stakes itself, but trainer Chad Brown dominated the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival.

Brown won 7 of the 18 stakes at Belmont Park from Thursday to Saturday, highlighted by brilliant performances Saturday from Bricks and Mortar in the Grade 1 Manhattan, Rushing Fall in the Grade 1 Just a Game, and Guarana in the Grade 1 Acorn.