DEL MAR, Calif. – There’s a crowd atop the list of hopefuls for Monday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity.

Aside from the first four finishers of the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes on Aug. 12 – Run Away, Dia de Pago, Fleetwood and Master Ruler – the candidates include Bolt d’Oro, Gracida, Soul Streit, Tatters to Riches, and Zatter, all maiden race winners here this summer.

Owner and trainer Mick Ruis is eager to see where Bolt d’Oro rates in the division since winning a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs by 2 1/4 lengths as the 4-5 favorite on Aug. 5.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - World Approval, Mondialiste, and Deauville head the list of 26 nominees to the $800,000 Woodbine Mile here Sept. 16. The Grade 1 fixture is a Win and You’re In qualifier for the Breeders' Cup Mile.

World Approval has won three of four starts this year, all for trainer Mark Casse, who captured last year’s Woodbine Mile with champion Tepin. A handsome gray/roan gelding, World Approval is coming off a decisive score in the Grade 1 Fourstardave at Saratoga.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Voodoo Song will look for his fourth win of the Saratoga meet when the New York-bred takes a big step up in class in Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Saranac Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles on the turf.

Owner Barry Schwartz gave Voodoo Song to Linda Rice after trainer Mike Hushion retired at the end of the Belmont spring-summer meet. For Hushion, Voodoo Song mostly sprinted on dirt despite having won his maiden on turf last November.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mr. Crow recorded his second blowout win of the Saratoga meet when he won a seven-furlong allowance race by 6 1/4 lengths here on Wednesday. Mr. Crow finished in 1:22.07 and earned a 104 Beyer Speed Figure.

On July 22, Mr. Crow won a six-furlong maiden race here by 11 1/2 lengths, running the distance in 1:09.44 and earning a 109 Beyer.

Trainer Todd Pletcher said he will consider running Mr. Crow in a stakes next out and has not ruled out the Grade 1 Vosburgh at Belmont on Sept. 30.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher has entered American Patriot in Monday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap, and provided the turf is firm, he will run him.

American Patriot, who won the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland in April, finished last of six in the Grade 1 Fourstardave just three weeks ago. Pletcher said jockey John Velazquez told him the son of War Front didn’t handle the yielding turf that day.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – While his former boss D. Wayne Lukas will be in search of his eighth Hopeful Stakes win on Monday, trainer Todd Pletcher will be looking for his fourth when he sends out Mojovation and National Flag in the Grade 1, $350,000 stakes for 2-year-olds at seven furlongs.

Mojovation and National Flag were among the eight horses entered Thursday for the Hopeful, the closing-day feature of the 40-day Saratoga meet.

Canterbury Park announced Friday it was raising the purse of the Sept. 16 Shakopee Juvenile from $60,000 to $75,000 and that Minnesota-breds in the race would be eligible for a $100,000 purse.

The six-furlong Shakopee Juvenile is somewhat noteworthy this year because it is expected to attract the very talented 2-year-old filly Amy’s Challenge. Amy’s Challenge beat males in her Aug. 6 career debut, a 16 1/2-length cakewalk victory in a six-furlong Canterbury maiden race that produced a 91 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest 2-year-old number in North America so far this year.

Apprentice jockey Katie Clawson, who has been leading rider for most of the long Indiana Grand 2017 race meet, has ridden only one race since Aug. 23 after falling in a morning-training accident. Clawson visited a doctor Wednesday and said via text message she is out of action until at least late next week. She said she has a follow-up medical examination scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 7, to “see how things have progressed with my healing.”

The two sharpest Illinois-bred 3-year-olds to race at Arlington this year, Smoke ‘n’ Gloat and Devileye, face off Saturday in the $65,000 Arlington Heights Stakes, a seven-furlong Polytrack race restricted to statebreds.

The Arlington Heights is one of six overnight stakes added last week to Arlington’s schedule because of a surplus in the track’s purse account. Arlington’s policy is to end its season with a zero balance in the account, which has led to purse cuts in recent years.

DEL MAR, Calif. – One cost more than $1 million. Another is a full brother to a Triple Crown winner. Three others are first-time starters purchased for six figures.

A maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds at 6 1/2 furlongs Saturday at Del Mar, the day’s eighth race, could be one of the more productive races of the summer. There are certainly plenty of contenders.