With a couple of eye-catching performances at Gulfstream Park under his belt, First Mondays will soon leave South Florida to get his first test in much tougher company.

Trainer John Servis said First Mondays is scheduled to be shipped next weekend from the Palm Meadows training center to his main base at Parx Racing in suburban Philadelphia, where the 3-year-old colt will train toward the Grade 3, $300,000 Smarty Jones on Aug. 25. A good effort could then lead to a start in the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 22 at Parx.

It appears next Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile will have the shortest field since Kid Katabatic took a seven-horse field all the way in the premier race at Emerald Downs in 1997.

There are 17 horses nominated, but according to officials at Emerald on Thursday, there are just six horses confirmed for the race.

The top horse at Emerald this year, Riser, is out with an injury. Trainer Blaine Wright did not say what the injury was but that “it is serious enough that he will miss the races we had targeted for him.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Victor Espinoza was released from a local rehabilitation clinic early Thursday afternoon, 11 days after he suffered a fractured vertebra in a training accident at Del Mar on July 22.

Espinoza was scheduled to begin in-home physical therapy on Friday, according to his agent, Brian Beach.

The 46-year-old rider was hospitalized until July 27 when he was transferred to the rehab center. Espinoza is expected to remain in the Del Mar area in coming weeks and will wear a neck brace through August.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Naughty Tiger, the winner of Wednesday’s $100,690 California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes in her stakes debut, is unlikely to start again at the Del Mar summer meeting.

Trainer and co-owner Ed Freeman said on Thursday that he is considering Naughty Tiger for the $100,000 Barretts Debutante at Los Alamitos on Sept. 15.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Lava Man, the star older horse of the late 2000s and current stable pony, has shown rapid recovery from a colic operation earlier this week and could be sent to a local farm in several days, trainer Doug O’Neill said.

Lava Man underwent a procedure on Tuesday to correct a colon displacement. He was grazed at a local equine clinic on Wednesday evening and is showing normal colon function.

Suffolk Downs had begun planning for the remote possibility that it would have to cancel racing this weekend after the state’s racing law expired on Tuesday night prior to the legislature moving a bill extending the law.

However, Gov. Charlie Baker signed a bill extending the law on Thursday after the State Senate passed a bill during an informal session earlier in the day, allowing simulcasting to resume and for the live cards to go forward as planned.

When Unique Bella won the Clement Hirsch Stakes July 29 at Del Mar, she earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 93 – much lower than her usual good performances. But the number was consistent with the data for the other races on the card – all of them sprints.

Simulcasting operations were suspended in Massachusetts on Wednesday after the state legislature failed to pass a bill extending the state’s expiring racing law, but racing officials were hopeful that the legislature would act on Thursday afternoon to address the problem.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Uni, who was scratched out of the Grade 1 Gamely at Santa Anita in May, will return to the races in Saturday’s $100,000 De La Rose Stakes at Saratoga.

Uni, who began her 4-year-old campaign with a victory in the Plenty of Grace Stakes at Aqueduct in April, got sick when she shipped from New York to California for the Gamely and had to scratch. It took a little while for Uni to get over her illness, but her recent workouts appear to have her ready to return.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Voodoo Song, who won four races at last year’s Saratoga meet, was entered Wednesday to make his first start of the 2018 Saratoga meet in the $100,000 Lure Stakes.

It is not certain he will stay in the race as owner Barry Schwartz on Wednesday indicated a desire to run Voodoo Song in the Grade 1 Fourstardave here on Aug. 11.

“I think it’s time to step up,” Schwartz said. “It’s his favorite track and distance; everything points to taking a shot.”