LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In the absence of the standout filly Elate, the role of favorite in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Handicap at Churchill Downs next Saturday likely will now fall to Valadorna or Farrell.

Churchill racing officials had been hoping to attract Elate for her 2018 debut, but the filly’s co-owner Walker Hancock of Claiborne Farm said Friday from Belmont Park the Fleur de Lis “is coming up just a bit too quick for us.”

“I wish it’d been another week later, but that’s the way it goes,” Hancock said. “We’ll probably wait now for the Delaware Handicap” on July 14.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Forrest Kaelin has disbanded his small stable due to his deteriorating health and has officially retired after more than 65 years in racing.

Kaelin, 83, was a jockey as a teenager and once rode six winners in a row on a card at the old Wheeling Downs in West Virginia. A serious injury soon thereafter led him to training, and for some 50 years, he was stabled in the same barn at Churchill, where his shed row entrance was only 50 feet or so across from that of D. Wayne Lukas.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Two turf allowances (races 6 and 9), both with oversubscribed fields, highlight a 10-race Sunday card that brings a four-day race week to an end at Churchill. The second and richest is a $62,000 sprint in which the speedy Latent Revenge surely will set a quick pace when trying to outlast a well-matched set of opponents.

The ninth race also marks the return of trainer Garry Simms, who will send out Double Tuff as his first starter since the 2017 Churchill fall meet.

ELMONT, N.Y. – He's going for the Triple Crown on Saturday, and is making the sixth start in an ambitious, accelerated campaign that began less than four months ago, but it would be hard to fault the way Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Justify appears to be coming into the Belmont Stakes.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Montauk, one of the more impressive debut winning 2-year-olds of 2017, was injured during a workout Thursday morning at Belmont Park and had to be euthanized, trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed.

Montauk had completed the first quarter of a half-mile breeze on the training track when he was pulled up by his exercise rider. He was vanned off and later euthanized.

“He fractured his left shoulder and had to be euthanized,” Pletcher said. “Very disappointing, very unusual injury, breezing an easy half.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – Ricardo Santana Jr. watched from the jockeys’ room at Churchill Downs as Creator outfinished Destin to win the 2016 Belmont Stakes by a nose.

“I was a little upset,” said Santana, who had ridden Creator in his four previous starts, including a victory in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and an eighth in the Kentucky Derby. “I was on that horse.”

Santana had been removed in favor of another 23-year-old jockey, Irad Ortiz Jr., who was a regular at Belmont Park, which has a unique 1 1/2-mile oval.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Justify, who will make a Triple Crown bid in Saturday’s 150th Belmont Stakes, arrived at Belmont Park on Wednesday at approximately 2:15 p.m. Eastern after a flight from Kentucky, where he had been based since his victory in the Preakness Stakes.

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Riser received a career-best 92 Beyer Speed Figure for his dominating win in the $50,000 Governor’s Stakes at Emerald Downs Sunday. The 4 1/4-length front-running victory over Barkley and Mach One Rules stamped him as the local favorite for the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile, the most important race at the meet. The Mile will be held on Aug. 12.

The New York Racing Association will offer a number of guaranteed pools and a pair of two-day daily-double wagers Friday and Saturday.

The Friday card, which includes five stakes, begins at 12:50 p.m. Eastern. There will be a pick four beginning on race 8 that comprises the Grade 2 True North, Grade 2 New York Stakes, Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup, and a maiden race on turf. A minimum pool of $500,000 is assured.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tim Glyshaw isn’t sure whether he’ll feel like David facing Goliath or a Stranger in a Strange Land when he makes his first trip to Europe.

“I’ve never been,” said Glyshaw, who is headed to Royal Ascot with stable star Bucchero for the Group 1 King’s Stand on June 19, opening day of the prestigious five-day meet in Great Britain. “So I’m pretty pumped about it.”