ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Harold Ladouceur is a rare breed among trainers. The 57-year-old gallops many of his own horses, including the Stronach Stables runners Rafaroo and Vitality, who are both headed to the $1 million King’s Plate on Aug. 17.

Rafaroo and Vitality were in the same maiden race on the canceled July 14 card at Woodbine, after which they went their separate ways. The following Friday, Vitality graduated with authority in his first start as a gelding, a day before Rafaroo finished a bang-up second to heavily favored My Boy Prince in the Plate Trial Stakes.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Bob Baffert hasn’t ruled out shipping Muth to Saratoga for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes.

Baffert said he planned to nominate both Muth and Parenting to the Travers, but indicated Wednesday that he’d be more inclined to keep Parenting home in California for the Pacific Classic on Aug. 31. Muth hasn’t run since winning the Arkansas Derby on March 30. He was entered in but scratched from the Preakness on May 17 due to a fever. Muth has been working steadily since mid-June.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mindframe, runner-up in the Belmont Stakes and Haskell, will be sidelined for the rest of the summer and early fall due to bone bruising, co-owner Mike Repole said Wednesday.

Additionally, Repole also said he is now leaning toward running Fierceness, the Grade 2 Jim Dandy winner, in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes here on Aug. 24.

The first turf racing in nearly two months in Northern California may help the Sonoma county fair in Santa Rosa continue a modest trend of increased field sizes on the state’s fair circuit when the track’s three-week season begins on Friday.

Santa Rosa is the only track in Northern California with a turf course, following the permanent closure of Golden Gate Fields in Albany on June 9.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Straight No Chaser, winner of the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint Stakes in 2023, was withdrawn from Saturday’s Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes on race day at Del Mar after the 5-year-old horse developed “an issue,” trainer Dan Blacker said on Sunday.

Blacker said Straight No Chaser will undergo tests this week.

“It’s disappointing to see it at the 11th hour,” Black said of the scratch. “It’s disappointing for the team and the owners. We have to do what’s best for the horse.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – Fighting off challenges from two rivals through the final five furlongs, Parenting remained unbeaten after three starts with a neck win in a one-mile allowance race at Del Mar on Sunday.

The win was Parenting’s first start since an easy win by 7 1/2 lengths in the Affirmed Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on June 9. Owned by Wathnan Racing, Parenting was considered for the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 20, but was not shipped to the New Jersey track.

DEL MAR, Calif. – With two winning juveniles and a veteran 4-year-old in peak form, trainer Tim Yakteen had the best weekend of his 20-year career at Del Mar on Saturday and Sunday.

It all happened in the days before his 60th birthday on Monday.

Johannes, a 4-year-old colt, extended his 2024 winning streak to three graded stakes on turf with an attractive win against a strong field in Sunday’s Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – War Like Goddess won the Grade 2 Glens Falls in 2021 and 2022 and was beaten a neck in the race last year.

Thursday, War Like Goddess will be in her stall in Bill Mott’s barn when the Glens Falls is run, the Hall of Fame trainer electing not to bring the 7-year-old mare back just three weeks after her victory in the Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial at Delaware Park.

Instead, Mott will point War Like Goddess to the Grade 2, $500,000 Flower Bowl on Aug. 31.