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.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Sophie Doyle knew that trainer Larry Jones’s phone was constantly ringing this winter with calls from jockey agents wanting to know if he was considering making a rider change for his 3-year-old filly Street Band.

Finally, after Doyle won the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks on Street Band in March, Doyle said Jones told her, “That just put everybody to bed who kept ringing and asking to take you off.”

“It’s really nice to have that kind of faith and trust from Mr. Jones,” Doyle said.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After missing the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes on Aug. 3 with what his connections said was a fever, Thunder Snow was going to be re-routed to the Grade 1 Woodward here Aug. 31.

But those plans have been scrapped, and Thunder Snow on Tuesday returned to trainer Saeed bin Suroor’s yard at Newmarket. Suroor told Attheraces.com that he still hopes to get Thunder Snow to the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita but where he runs before then is not decided.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Last summer, Saratoga was a disaster for Fire Key, who ran three times at the meet and beat a total of one horse. There were excuses.

Fire Key didn’t handle a boggy turf course in the Caress Stakes. She didn’t care for the dirt in an off-the-turf allowance two weeks later. Lastly, she had to avoid a fallen horse and ultimately was the last one across the finish line in the Smart N Fancy Stakes.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Elizabeth Dobles will make her Saratoga debut as a trainer with Vow to Recover in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Lake Placid Stakes, but she is no stranger to the Spa.

Dobles previously worked for trainer Jeremiah Englehart.

“It was before he went big time, but I was there for a few winners,” Dobles said Wednesday from Florida.

:: Get PPs, Clocker Reports, picks, and more from DRF's Saratoga/Del Mar One-Stop Shop

DEL MAR, Calif. –For a few moments in the Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap on July 24 at Del Mar, Itsinthepost looked poised to score an upset over the heavily favored Campaign. Itsinthepost led by a length with a furlong remaining, but could not hold off his rival, who won by 1 1/4 lengths.

Saturday, both are entered in important stakes – Campaign runs in the $1 million Pacific Classic, while Itsinthepost will have his third consecutive appearance in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on turf.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The only champion on display on Saturday’s five-stakes program at Del Mar may not go favored.

Stormy Liberal, the champion turf male of 2018, will race for the first time since March in the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at five furlongs on turf. The favorite for the $100,000 race may be Eddie Haskell, a two-time stakes winner this year who has won four of his last five starts.