It wasn't easy to fill, but the Grade 3 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park on Saturday closed with seven entrants on Wednesday despite track management declining to accept two entries from trainer Jorge Navarro. The six-furlong De Francis is one of seven stakes on the Laurel card.

Navarro and one of his owners, Randal Gindi, were each fined $5,000 by the Monmouth Park stewards on Sunday for "conduct detrimental to racing" after a video posted online showed them making inappropriate comments following a Gulfstream Park race won by Navarro's brother, Marcial.

Apprentice jockey Katie Clawson, who has ridden only one race since Aug. 23, hopes she can return to work next week at Indiana Grand.

Clawson was hurt in a morning training spill and suffered a concussion, the effects of which still are being resolved. She wasn’t cleared by a doctor during a visit last week but said she has another appointment Monday and expects a more favorable report then.

Fly Baby Fly won’t race again this year and will return to the races next year at 3, trainer Jimmy Padgett said Wednesday. She was found to have a small bone chip following her win in the $3 million All American Futurity last month at Ruidoso Downs, and it has been removed at a clinic in Texas.

Padgett said Fly Baby Fly will be pointed for the Ruidoso stakes series for 3-year-olds. She had been eligible for trials for the Texas Classic Futurity, and that was an option until the chip was found, but so was resting her until next summer, said Padgett.

Lone Star Park opens a 26-date meet for Quarter Horses on Friday night, and the track will be the fall home for the sport’s reigning world champion, Jessies First Down. Trainer Jimmy Padgett said the horse is bedded down on the backstretch off his 2 1/4-length victory in the Grade 1 All American Gold Cup at Ruidoso Downs.

Lone Star’s season will run through Nov. 11. The track will jump into the meet in trial mode, with qualifying heats for the Dash for Cash Derby on Friday night and the Dash for Cash Futurity on Saturday.

Shotgun Kowboy and Smack Smack have had their share of success at Remington Park, but just one of them is scheduled to see action at this meet. Shotgun Kowboy worked a sharp half-mile on Wednesday as he prepares for his first start since the spring, while Smack Smack was taking it easy a few miles away, lounging at the Oklahoma farm of owner Toby Keith.

Things didn’t go Irish War Cry’s way in the Haskell Invitational, and he finished fourth, beaten 5 1/4 lengths. He bounced out of the race well, though, and trainer Graham Motion has worked him four times in preparation for the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby next Saturday at Parx Racing.

The plan Gayle Benson’s GMB Racing Stable hatched in 2014 still is active.

Benson is the wife of Tom Benson, the highly successful New Orleans businessman who owns the NFL’s Saints and the NBA’s Pelicans, and three years ago, the Bensons sent three New Orleans trainers – Tom Amoss, Al Stall, and Dallas Stewart – out to yearling sales to buy horses they would train. That first group of purchases included Mo Tom, Tom’s Ready, and Tom’s d’Etat, all of whom panned out nicely.

Handicappers might be exhausted by the time they get to it, but the $50,000 John Bullit Stakes on Friday night at Canterbury is a nice little race.

The John Bullit, for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles on dirt, is the 12th of 13 races Friday and is scheduled for 10:22 p.m. Central. Since the Canterbury meet ends Saturday, the entry box for Friday’s marathon card overflowed, with 158 entrants in those 13 races.

It seemed fair to wonder how many folks would be interested in lining up to face Amy’s Challenge in the Shakopee Juvenile Stakes on closing-day Saturday at Canterbury Park. The answer is: plenty.

The Shakopee Juvenile was drawn Wednesday with 10 entrants, including the three best 2-year-olds seen this summer at Canterbury. The filly Amy’s Challenge heads that trio, but Soul of Discretion also impressed in his lone start, and Mr. Jagermeister twice has buried Minnesota-bred rivals.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Sharp Samurai, the dominant 3-year-old turf runner in California in recent months, will remain in the state this fall and is not expected to start until the Grade 2 Twilight Derby at Santa Anita on Oct. 28.

Trainer Mark Glatt said he considered running Sharp Samurai in the Grade 3, $500,000 Hill Prince Stakes at Belmont Park on Oct. 7, but that the $200,000 Twilight Derby at 1 1/8 miles on turf is a better fit.

“We’ll stay home with him,” Glatt said. “I think we’ll give him plenty of time between races.”