OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Neecie Marie, runner-up to Didia in the Grade 1 New York Stakes on June 7, will point to the Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga on July 13, trainer Butch Reid said Thursday.

Neecie Marie, who won the Grade 3 Beaugay at Aqueduct prior to the New York, returned to the track on Thursday at Parx in Bensalem Pa.

“She was kicking up her heels, it’s almost like she didn’t run,” Reid said. “We brought her back to Philly but she will be part of our Saratoga string. She’ll be on our first vanload up there, that’s for sure.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Pandagate, the New York-bred 3-year-old who finished third in the $1 million UAE Derby in March, worked a half-mile in 50.11 seconds Thursday morning at Belmont Park as he prepares for a return to the races, likely in July.

One potential spot for Pandagate is the $150,000 New York Derby at Finger Lakes on July 15, trainer Christophe Clement said.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Luis Cardenas, injured in a spill at Saratoga in the summer of 2021 and who has not ridden races since the fall of 2022, is back exercising horses with the goal of returning to race-riding this fall.

Cardenas, 27, has been exercising horses for trainer Tom Morley and a few others for about a month. He said he was cleared by doctors to return to riding in the morning, but not yet in the afternoon.

Micah Meeks learned she would have her first mount at the Alameda county fair in Pleasanton, Calif., on Friday when she saw the overnight earlier this week.

“I was kind of surprised,” she said on Tuesday. “I wasn’t expecting it.”

Meeks, 18, graduated from high school in Orinda, Calif., in December, deliberately completing her studies to spend mornings working horses at nearby Golden Gate Fields.

Rimprotector was the 21-1 outsider of six when he finished third in the Grade 3 San Juan Capistrano Stakes at about 1 3/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita last June.

A year later, Rimprotector is entered in the same $100,000 turf marathon on Sunday with a better recent record – consecutive wins in allowance races at Golden Gate Fields in March and April.

The wins have left trainer Tim McCanna bullish about Rimprotector’s chances compared to 2023.

“I think he’s a better horse since then,” McCanna said.

Two Southern Hemisphere fillies who have won or placed in Group 1 races are scheduled to start in the United States in the coming months with the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 2 as a long-term goal.

Owner John Stewart said last weekend that Tutta La Vita, an Australian-bred filly who has finished second or third in three Group 1 races in that country since September, is scheduled to join trainer Ignacio Correas’s stable later this summer.