SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Farrell and Wow Cat, separated by a neck in Sunday’s Grade 3 Shuvee Stakes, will both point to the Grade 1 Personal Ensign here on Aug. 25, their trainers said Monday.

Farrell went gate to wire in the Shuvee, holding off Wow Cat late to win her fifth graded stakes and surpass the $1 million mark in career earnings. The only thing she hasn’t done is win a Grade 1 race.

“That’s what we’re looking for, a Grade 1,” trainer Wayne Catalano said.

Farrell earned a 90 Beyer Speed Figure for the Shuvee.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Brian Lynch was all smiles after watching his two top turf horses, Heart to Heart and Oscar Performance, work over the grass at the Oklahoma training track on Monday morning.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Bill Mott won six races over five days at Saratoga to move into second in the trainer standings following Sunday’s card.

And his meet should only get better.

Mott, who had won seven races from 28 starters at the meet entering Monday’s card, celebrated his 65th birthday Sunday with two wins, naturally. He has now won a race at Saratoga on his birthday in 17 of the last 24 years. More impressively, Mott has won at least one race at Saratoga for 32 straight meets, or since 1987. He has won the Saratoga training title nine times.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After winning her first three starts by a combined 18 3/4 lengths, Minit to Stardom will literally be “put to the test” when she makes her stakes debut here Saturday in the Grade 1 Test Stakes.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The mood was of both sadness and anticipation at the Bob Baffert barn Monday morning. Sadness because Triple Crown winner Justify was set to depart in less than 48 hours for WinStar Farm in Kentucky, but anticipation over a bumper crop of 2-year-olds that has debuted with wins this meet, including the filly Chasing Yesterday on Saturday and the colt Roadster on Sunday.

Justify was feted in a retirement ceremony between races Saturday, which Baffert said “was emotional for me.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – Monday was trainer John Sadler’s 62nd birthday, but he was the one doling out presents. Sadler said that Joel Rosario would replace the injured Victor Espinoza aboard Accelerate in the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 18.

Espinoza fractured the C-3 vertebra in his neck on July 22 and is out for the meet. Sadler said he chose Rosario, who is based on the East Coast but once was the dominant rider in Southern California, because they “have a good history together.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – Even though her right front shoe came loose and then fell off soon after the start of the Clement Hirsch Stakes on Sunday at Del Mar, Unique Bella emerged unscathed from the race, according to Dan Ward, the local assistant to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.

“Didn’t damage the foot at all,” Ward said Monday morning as he looked after things here while Hollendorfer tended to his Golden Gate Fields string. “We were really lucky.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It is his immense respect for the horses in the sprint division as much as a desire to try his horse around two turns that has trainer Chad Summers excited to run Mind Your Biscuits in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.2 million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga.

“I feel like the older [route] division is a softer division right now,” Summers said Monday. “Do you want to run against Imperial Hint for $350,000 or run against these horses for $1.2 million? I want to take a shot at $1.2 million against these horses.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – Last week, on a quiet morning at Del Mar, Drayden Van Dyke slipped out of the stable area and drove to a local fast food joint to buy breakfast for the staff at trainer John Sadler’s barn.

From the drive-thru, Van Dyke ordered 30 breakfast sandwiches and 10 burritos, much to the surprise of the restaurant staff. A few minutes later, two members of the staff walked to Van Dyke’s car with the $170 order.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Triple Crown winner Justify won’t be running in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers, but the runners-up in all three Triple Crown races, the top 3-year-old turf horse in America, and a Canadian-bred filly who has twice defeated males will, making for an interesting 149th renewal of the Midsummer Derby, to be run Aug. 25 at Saratoga.