Convivial turned in an eye-catching debut victory for Richard Santulli’s Colts Neck Stables and trainer Alan Goldberg on Saturday at Monmouth Park, rallying from far back to win a 1 1/16-mile turf maiden race by 2 1/4 lengths.

Trainer Michelle Lovell was buying more than she expected when claiming Woodmans Luck for $16,000 out of a June 10 victory at Churchill Downs.

Lovell had been unaware that Woodmans Luck won the last race ever run at Hollywood Park on Dec. 22, 2013, until she recently watched the replay of him winning that emotional finale by a nose under Corey Nakatani.

“Gave me goose bumps,” said Lovell.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita completed a marathon six-month season on Tuesday with increases in all-sources handle and attendance, track officials said.

But the final months of the meeting were plagued by difficulty filling races, and racing on four Thursdays was canceled – one in late April and three in June. The track raced three days a week for three weeks in June and saw an increase in field size during that span.

Three-day weeks may be built into the schedule for the 2018 meeting, according to track senior vice president Joe Morris.

Some horseplayers who visited Ellis Park or another in-state simulcast facility during the opening four-day weekend of the western Kentucky track’s meet undoubtedly were dismayed to discover that some of their favorite tracks were unavailable for watching and wagering.

Richard’s Boy was placed first in the $200,000 Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup at Penn National on June 3 after the stewards disqualified Bold Thunder for fouling him in the stretch. Now, Richard’s Boy has a drug positive and Bold Thunder could be reinstated as the winner.

Richard’s Boy is based at San Luis Rey Downs in Southern California with trainer Peter Miller. In his start prior to the Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup, Richard’s Boy won the Jim McKay Turf Sprint at Pimlico. In March, he finished fifth, beaten only 2 1/2 lengths, in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The career trajectories of Oscar Performance and New Money Honey are remarkably similar.

Both won graded stakes at Belmont last fall that propelled them to Breeders’ Cup success last November. After disappointing starts to their 3-year-old season, both Oscar Performance and New Money Honey righted themselves with convincing front-running victories last month.

Jockey Dean Butler is out of action indefinitely after being injured in a spill Friday night at Canterbury Park.

Butler, according to his agent Pete Antonucci, suffered compression fractures of three vertebrae when his mount in the fourth race, Valeski, broke down in the homestretch.

Butler, 46, was fortunate his injuries weren’t more severe. No surgery was required, and Butler was released from the hospital Sunday.

“It could have been career-ending,” Antonucci said.

ELMONT, N.Y. – When Jimmy Jerkens gave Unified his last serious workout for Saturday’s Grade 2, $350,000 Belmont Sprint Championship, he equipped the colt with blinkers even though he has never run in them and won’t on Saturday.

In that workout on June 29, Unified went five furlongs in 1:00.27, the fastest of 17 breezes at the distance.

“Sometimes when he’s by himself on the main track, he’s in la-la land, and I wanted to work him on the track he’s going to run on,” Jerkens said. “I just wanted to make sure he was on the bit a little bit.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – Aidan O’Brien is sending a trio of horses from Ireland to compete in Saturday’s two seven-figure, Grade 1 turf stakes for 3-year-olds at Belmont Park, but he doesn’t appear to be holding as strong a hand as in past years.

For the $1.2 million Belmont Derby, O’Brien is sending Whitecliffsofdover and Homesman, neither of whom was on the original invitee list published by the New York Racing Association.

ELMONT, N.Y. – After winning the 158th running of the Queen’s Plate on Sunday at Woodbine with the 3-year-old filly Holy Helena, owner Frank Stronach and trainer Jimmy Jerkens will now turn their attention to Saturday’s 131st renewal of the Suburban Handicap, which this year has a purse of $750,000, up from $500,000 in the previous three years.

Shaman Ghost, the winner of the Santa Anita Handicap and Pimlico Special this year and the Queen’s Plate in 2015, will look to give Jerkens his third consecutive victory in the Suburban, a race he won in 2015 and 2016 with Effinex.