CYPRESS, Calif. – A training accident in 2017 led to a career change for John Cisneros, who has his first starter as a trainer at Los Alamitos on Thursday.

Cisneros will run the 2-year-old filly Cause Why in a maiden special weight for California-breds at 5 1/2 furlongs, one of two horses he has based at the track. Both runners are owned by Huntertown Farm, the stable name of breeder Heinz Steinmann and his extended family.

In 2017, Cisneros, 61, sustained injuries in a fall during morning training and was told by doctors to stay out of the saddle.

CYPRESS, Calif. – First, Next Shares won the $250,000 Old Friends Stakes at Kentucky Downs last Thursday. Two days later, in a matter of two hours, Insta Erma won the Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf Stakes and Gas Station Sushi won the $75,000 Beverly Lewis Stakes at Los Alamitos.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Battle of Midway, second in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 25 in his first start of the year, is likely to race later this month in the Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park or the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita.

The Grade 2 Kelso Handicap is at one mile on Sept. 22, and the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes is at 1 1/8 miles on Sept. 29. 

Battle of Midway worked five furlongs in 58.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Saturday.

“He’s coming around very well,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Strictly Biz, the winner of a maiden special weight for 2-year-olds at Los Alamitos on Friday, will switch from dirt to turf for his next start at Santa Anita in October.

Trainer Brian Koriner said over the weekend that Strictly Biz will be pointed for the $100,000 Speakeasy Stakes at five furlongs on turf Oct. 6. The Speakeasy Stakes was run in past years at six furlongs on dirt.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Soi Phet finished sixth in Saturday’s $75,000 E.B. Johnston Stakes at Los Alamitos in what may have been the final start for the popular 10-year-old gelding.

Trainer Leonard Powell said on Sunday that Soi Phet will be turned out for the rest of the year. A decision on whether Soi Phet races in 2019 will depend on how he trains next spring.

Regarding a potential retirement, Powell said, “There is a possibility.”

“We’ll see if he wants to do it,” Powell said. “He’ll go on vacation. That was his last race of the year.”

CYPRESS, Calif. – Lombo needed all of the 1,380-foot stretch at Los Alamitos to win an optional $62,500 claimer on Thursday. Making his first start for Phil D’Amato after having been trained by Mike Pender, Lombo closed steadily under Martin Garcia to win by a head over Street Vision, finishing six furlongs in 1:09.76.

Lombo had not raced since finishing sixth in the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs on May 5.

“Those were good, seasoned older horses,” D’Amato said of Thursday’s field. “For him to do that off the break, I like the fight I saw.”

CYPRESS, Calif. – Core Beliefs and Draft Pick are likely to represent trainer Peter Eurton in the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park on Sept. 30.

The $400,000 Oklahoma Derby is run at 1 1/8 miles.

Core Beliefs, owned by Gary Broad, won the Grade 3 Ohio Derby in June and was fourth in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 29. Draft Pick, owned by Lee and Susan Searing, was second in the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby in July and second in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park on Aug. 4.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Jockey Martin Pedroza, still going strong at the age of 53, found the ideal antidote to a difficult summer on Thursday at Los Alamitos.

Pedroza won two races on the first day of the Los Angeles County Fair meeting, or half the number of races he won during the entire 36-day season at Del Mar.

“I needed a double to make up for Del Mar,” Pedroza said. “I should have had a triple.”

Pedroza won Thursday’s fifth race on Kid Koil ($8) and the seventh on Princess Areni ($6.20). He was second in the fourth race on Street Vision, who was beaten by a head.

Women on the racetrack? Not so much when Kathleen O’Connell came onto the scene at the now-extinct Detroit Race Course.

“My first license was as a hotwalker and pony boy,” she recalled. “It wasn’t even girl!”

Bolt d’Oro, whose form collapsed in the Kentucky Derby and the Metropolitan Handicap, had his first work for trainer Steve Asmussen on Friday morning when he went an easy half-mile in 52.60 seconds over the Saratoga training track.

Bolt d’Oro’s most recent start was the Met Mile, where he faded after pressing the pace and finished last of 11. At odds of 8-1, Bolt d’Oro struggled home 12th of 20 in the Kentucky Derby.