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.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mihos, who failed to have an impact in both the Grade 3 Dwyer and Grade 2 Jim Dandy in his last two appearances, could make his next start on the grass, trainer Jimmy Jerkens said earlier this week.

Jockey Tyler Baze was expected back in action this week after having a few days to get over the soreness that resulted from being thrown hard to the ground by his mount, My Mertie, in the first step out of the starting gate in the Groupie Doll at Ellis Park.

Following the Groupie Doll, Baze, 36, rode two races that ended the Sunday card, but his rib cage was hurting so much that he drove himself to the emergency room at a hospital in New Albany, Ind., on his way back to Louisville “just out of precaution,” said his agent, Vic Stauffer.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Now that Go Google Yourself has won her first stakes, the 4-year-old filly will go for graded type next – and might not have to face any of the Grade 1 winners she met in June.

Fresh from her three-length victory Sunday at Ellis Park in the $125,000 Groupie Doll, Go Google Yourself will be pointed to the Grade 3, $200,000 Locust Grove on Sept. 14 at her home track of Churchill Downs, said trainer Paul McGee.

No one could have imagined three years ago when Fast Pass was running in $4,000 claiming races that someday he would be so highly regarded as to merit an invitation to a $1 million race in Korea.

But that’s what has happened, and his trainer, Peter Walder, couldn’t be more pumped.

“It’s so cool,” Walder said this week from Gulfstream Park in South Florida. “I’m honored, I’m excited. I’ve never been to that part of the world and I can’t wait to see it.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – Seeking the Soul was installed as the lukewarm 3-1 favorite after posts were drawn Tuesday night at a local restaurant for the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic, the biggest race of the meet at Del Mar.

The Pacific Classic drew a field of 10 older horses. It is a 1 1/4-mile race, the same distance as the Breeders’ Cup Classic, for which it offers a fees-paid berth to the victor via the Win and You’re In program.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – One could argue that no trainer has been hotter here this summer than Mike DePaulo, who has won 16 races since July 1. Through last Sunday, he was tied for fourth in the standings with 22 triumphs at the meet.

DePaulo supplemented Rising Star to Saturday’s $400,000 Breeders’ Stakes, the final leg of the Canadian Triple Crown. DePaulo won the 1 1/2-mile turf route for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds with Pender Harbour in 2011.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Rafael Bejarano bounds through the stable area every morning as if he’s an apprentice rider just starting out, rather than an established veteran whose résumé includes five Breeders’ Cup wins, six summer riding titles here at Del Mar, and who two months ago won his 4,000th race.

He’ll work as few as three and as many as seven horses in a morning, every morning, Mondays and Tuesdays included. His drive is born of wanting to return to the perch he occupied earlier this decade, when he was winningest rider on this circuit.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Bolo and Bowies Hero are expected to head the field on Sunday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Del Mar Mile, for which they were assigned co-high weight of 124 pounds for the turf race for 3-year-olds and up.

Bolo has not raced since winning the Shoemaker Mile in May. Bowies Hero won the Eddie Read here last month.

Others expected for the Del Mar Mile include Bombard, Grecian Fire, Ohio, Prince Earl, What a View, and possibly Catapult.