ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The new $8 million inner turf course, on the same hallowed ground over which the great Secretariat completed his final race, has gotten rave reviews from horsemen.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Hall of Fame jockey Victor Espinoza will be the guest of honor at a dinner Aug. 12 that raises money for the Gregson Foundation, which funds scholarships for children of backstretch employees.

The Gregson Foundation is named in honor of the late trainer Eddie Gregson, who won the 1982 Kentucky Derby with Gato Del Sol. To date, according to Jenine Sahadi, the former trainer who is the president of the foundation, more than 600 students have been helped.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Trainer Ron Ellis got off to a hot start opening week with a pair of wins and a second-place finish from just five starters.

Both wins came Saturday, with the debuting maiden 3-year-old filly First Star and the 5-year-old gelding Ronald R, who won an optional claimer in his first start for Ellis following a 14-month layoff.

“The filly, it was nice to see her show up,” Ellis said. “The other horse was coming off a long layoff, and I was afraid he’d be a little rusty. He had been training real well, and everything set up right.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Bombard and Bowies Hero won different grass stakes for older horses Sunday, but their paths look like they’ll cross next month, as both are intended for the Grade 2, $200,000 Del Mar Mile on Aug. 18.

Bombard, a 6-year-old gelding, won the restricted Wickerr going one mile in his second start since an 11-month layoff necessitated by knee surgery, the third of his career, said his trainer, Richard Mandella.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Richard Mandella can play his cards close to the vest, but he gave away his tell Tuesday morning at Del Mar after his top-class 3-year-old colt Omaha Beach had his first work on the comeback trail.

Mandella was smiling broadly, and did a little jig, as he watched Omaha Beach cool out at his barn following a three-furlong workout that was his first drill since prior to the Kentucky Derby.

“We’re back!” he said. “He looked pretty happy.”

So did Mandella.

Colonial Downs in New Kent, Virginia, will have takeout rates of 16 percent for its win, place, and show pools and a rate of 20 percent for nearly all other bets when the track reopens in August, the track announced on Monday.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though he hadn’t run a horse here in eight summers, trainer Stanley Hough still appreciates how hard it is to win a race at Saratoga.

In a span of 48 hours Hough made it look easy, winning an allowance race Friday with He Hate Me and a maiden race Sunday with Scars Are Cool. They were Hough’s first two Saratoga wins since Tar Heel Mom won the Grade 2 Honorable Miss in August 2011, the last summer he ran a horse here.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Guarana won the Grade 1 Acorn with 53 days between races and Sunday’s Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks with 43 days between starts. That’s why when evaluating where to run the undefeated 3-year-old filly next, trainer Chad Brown seems inclined to wait for the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion Stakes at Parx Racing on Sept. 21.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Code of Honor, the Kentucky Derby runner-up who won the Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes, won’t be running in Saturday’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes, but he did return to the work tab Monday morning, breezing three furlongs in 38.53 seconds over the Oklahoma training track.

Code of Honor, who is pointing to the Grade 1 Travers on Aug. 24, galloped out a half-mile in 51.43 and five furlongs in 1:04.11.

“Just getting him started again, I thought it was good,” trainer Shug McGaughey said. “We’ll get him back in a routine and go from there.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – On Sunday morning, trainer Jimmy Toner and owner Sean Shay visited their Grade 1 winner Hunter O’ Riley at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Saratoga. Hunter O’ Riley is there due to a leg infection that will force him to miss Saturday’s Bowling Green Stakes, a race he won in 2017.

Late Sunday afternoon, Toner and Shay were in the Saratoga winner’s circle after Mominou pulled off a 29-1 upset in the $200,000 Caress Stakes.