The first Thoroughbred race at Northlands Park was held in 1900. The last one at the Edmonton, Alberta track will be the 89th running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Canadian Derby on Saturday. The Canadian Derby has been the most important race at Northlands since 1957. The winner of the first derby at Northlands was Spangled Jimmy. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Last year, Voodoo Song capped a 4-for-4 summer at Saratoga by winning the Grade 3 Saranac Stakes. This year, Therapist, like Voodoo Song a New York-bred, will attempt to win the $300,000 stakes for 3-year-olds going 1 1/8 miles next Saturday.

Therapist on Friday worked a half-mile in 50.07 seconds over the Oklahoma turf course in preparation for the 1 1/8-mile Saranac.

Therapist, a son of Freud trained by Christophe Clement, is 6 for 8 and is coming off two victories in New York Stallion series races at Belmont and Saratoga.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Voodoo Song apparently likes the Oklahoma turf course, too.

Voodoo Song on Friday worked a sharp five furlongs in 1:00.88 and then had a visually impressive gallop-out over the Oklahoma turf course in preparation for an expected start in the Grade 2, $250,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap at Saratoga on Sept. 3, the closing day of the meet.

Voodoo Song got his final three furlongs in 34.97 seconds while galloping out well down the backside before the exercise rider could pull him up.

The Equine Sales Co. will put on its annual 2-year-olds in training sale a month earlier next year, on April 2 in Opelousas, La., with the breeze show set for March 31.

The change was made after hearing input from both buyers and consignors, sales director Foster Bridewell said.

Yearlings will hit sales rings in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana over the next two weeks, with the first auction at Lone Star Park near Dallas on Monday.

The Texas Thoroughbred Association has cataloged 90 yearlings for its auction and will also offer broodmares and weanlings as part of the book of 129 horses. The one-day sale will be in a stable-area pavilion at noon Central.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y – Without a standout, next Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward at Saratoga is expected to draw close to a full field, and many of the major players put in workouts for the race on Friday morning.

At Gulfstream Park West, Gunnevera – the potential Woodward favorite – worked six furlongs in 1:13.20. He was expected to leave South Florida on Friday night by van and arrive in Saratoga early Sunday morning, according to trainer Antonio Sano.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y – Restless Rider, the 11 1/4-length winner of the Debutante Stakes on June 30 at Churchill Downs, worked five furlongs in 1:02.87 over the Oklahoma training track Friday morning in preparation for next Saturday’s Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes.

Restless Rider went her first three furlongs in 37.85 seconds and got her last quarter in 25.02. Trainer Ken McPeek noted he wasn’t looking for much from Restless Rider a week after she went five furlongs in 59.04 in company with Road Tiger, who may run in Thursday’s P.G. Johnson.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y – Chad Summers did not nominate Whitney runner-up Mind Your Biscuits to the Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward Stakes. But when he sent the New York-bred Grade 1 winner out to work Friday morning at Saratoga, he left the door open to supplement him to the race if he really worked well.

Mind Your Biscuits went five furlongs in 1:02.19 and after the move Summers confirmed that Mind Your Biscuits would make his next start in the Grade 3, $200,000 Lukas Classic going 1 1/8 miles on Sept. 29 at Churchill Downs.

DEL MAR, Calif. – All-sources handle at the Del Mar summer meeting has shown a healthy gain over the corresponding meeting in 2017 and has allowed the racetrack to reduce a significant deficit in its purse account, a track official said on Thursday.

But the deficit could take several years to eliminate and is the primary reason the track has been unable to increase purses, according to Mike Ernst, the track’s chief financial officer.

Ernst said the deficit “is still north of $1 million” but did not go into specifics.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Bellafina, the winner of the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes on Aug. 5, worked five furlongs in 1:00.40 at Del Mar on Friday in advance of her Grade 1 debut in the $300,000 Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 1.

Bellafina’s time was the fastest of 61 works at the distance Friday.

“I liked the way she galloped out,” trainer Simon Callaghan said. “We’re going into it with two races under our belt. She got a good foundation from the Sorrento.”