Trainer Jason Servis confirmed Thursday that Grade 3 Withers winner Sunny Ridge will return to the races in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park next Sunday.

Sunny Ridge has missed time with a pulled gluteal muscle after finishing fourth in the Grade 3 Gotham at Aqueduct on March 5. He has recorded five workouts at Monmouth Park since June 20. He had his second five-furlong work at Monmouth on Thursday.

“He’s doing pretty good,” Servis said. “Is it an ideal situation? No way. It’s tough to go in a 1 1/8-miles Grade 1 off a five-month layoff without a prep.”

Last year, trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. ran Pegasus Stakes winner Mr. Jordan against Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park. A 26-1 longshot, Mr. Jordan finished last of seven.

Plesa will have another Haskell longshot next Sunday in Awesome Slew, but that’s where the comparison of the two horses ends. Plesa thinks very highly of Awesome Slew, a late-developing son of Awesome Again, and believes he is ready to run the best race of his career in the Haskell.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Eddie Kenneally said that Bradester, the winner of the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap last month at Churchill Downs, is under consideration for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Whitney Stakes here on Aug. 6.

“We’re looking at it for sure,” Kenneally said. “He finally came through and won a Grade 1 stakes, came out of it really good.”

Kenneally said that Bradester is also being considered for the Grade 2, $200,000 Monmouth Cup on July 31. Bradester won that race last year.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – My Man Sam, the Blue Grass Stakes runner-up, will make his first start since his 11th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby in a first-level allowance Saturday at Saratoga.

The 1 1/8-mile race drew a field of six, including Tale of Verve, the runner-up to American Pharoah in last year’s Preakness.

Trainer Chad Brown said he is hoping to use this race for My Man Sam as a stepping-stone to the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 27.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Rusty Arnold said the decision to run Weep No More in Sunday’s Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga was made long before it was announced that the undefeated champion Songbird would be coming to the race as well.

Arnold said owners Len and Sandy Bromagen want to run Weep No More in the Grade 1 Alabama, a 1 1/4-mile race here Aug. 20, and believe the CCA Oaks is the best place to prep.

“We’re looking to the Alabama – that’s where we’re wanting to run,” Arnold said Friday. “I do think we have a true mile-and-a-quarter horse.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – The presence of the popular California Chrome in the $200,000 San Diego Handicap on Saturday is expected to boost attendance at Del Mar, but track officials are reluctant to predict the size of the crowd.

Craig Dado, Del Mar’s chief marketing officer, said California Chrome’s appearance and promotions that include food-truck and craft-beer festivals could produce an audience in excess of 25,000.

“Chrome is a unique horse,” Dado said. “He almost has a cult following.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – Pretty N Cool and Enchanting Lady gave trainer Bob Baffert a sweep of the exacta in Wednesday’s $77,600 California Equine Retirement Foundation Stakes at Del Mar. The same two fillies will give Baffert a strong team for the $100,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs on Aug. 17.

The Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap is the top race for female sprinters at the summer meeting.

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DEL MAR, Calif. – Calculator won a graded stakes on dirt in early 2015 as a 3-year-old and has two seconds and a third in graded sprints this year. On Saturday, Calculator’s career will go in a different direction when he starts for the first time on turf.

There are indications that Calculator will run well in a strong field in Saturday’s fifth race, a one-mile optional claimer. He worked a half-mile in 51.60 seconds on turf last Sunday.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mike Smith has ridden some of the best female horses of all time – four, in fact, who are in the Hall of Fame, including Zenyatta, whose induction takes place in less than three weeks.

Smith, a Hall of Famer himself and still going strong at age 50, has found another fabulous filly in Songbird, who is undefeated in eight career starts. She will put that streak on the line Sunday in the Grade 1, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga, where she will meet four rivals, including Grade 1 winners Carina Mia and Weep No More.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Patrick Valenzuela has been denied a jockey’s license by the California Horse Racing Board, ending a months-long quest to resume his troubled career on the West Coast.

Wednesday, the racing board announced that it had adopted the recommendation of hearing officer Patrick Kane who proposed Valenzuela be denied a license for repeated violations for substance-abuse issues in his career. Kane recommended that Valenzuela reapply for a license in a year and that he undergo drug and alcohol testing on a weekly basis in the interim.