OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Javier Castellano, who suffered a fractured hand in a spill at Saratoga on Aug. 30, hopes to return by the first weekend in October, the Hall of Fame rider said Wednesday.

Castellano was injured when his mount Take Me To Church was bumped into by a fallen The Big Torpedo during the stretch run of the Grade 3 Saranac Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 30. Castellano was unseated and after initial X-rays indicated he had no fractures, further imaging revealed he had a tiny fracture in his right hind.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Following a 10-day break to freshen up and recharge, racing on this circuit resumes Friday at Aqueduct with the first of 31 cards to be contested during what would ordinarily be the Belmont Park fall meeting.

Trainer Joe Orseno plans to send a division of horses to Kentucky on Sunday. It’s a first for the horseman, who will be racing at Churchill Downs on a regular basis. Back in 2000, he won a pair of Breeders’ Cup races at the track, taking the Juvenile with Macho Uno and the Filly and Mare Turf with Perfect Sting.

Orseno is based at Gulfstream Park and also had horses at Monmouth Park. He said most of the Kentucky division will be made up of horses shipping in from New Jersey.

Trainer Joe Orseno is bullish on Bucchero and on Friday he will saddle one of the stallion’s promising 3-year-old fillies, Etrurian, in the featured eighth race at Gulfstream Park. She goes in a five-furlong allowance for 3-year-old fillies on turf that drew nine, including fellow Bucchero daughter Super Freaky Girl, stakes winner Welcome Back, and sharp maiden winner Next Right Thing,

DEL MAR, Calif. – Mike Pegram had seen this before, four other times to be exact. He insisted that it never gets old.

A win in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity is the perfect way to end a summer.

On Sunday, Pegram was in the winner’s circle with racing partners Paul Weitman and Karl Watson after Gaming ($9.80) stormed to the lead in early stretch to win the $301,000 race at seven furlongs by 1 3/4 lengths over McKinzie Street.

“He’s the real deal,” a beaming Pegram said.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar completed its 31-day summer meeting with a decline in handle compared to the corresponding meeting in 2023.

According to figures compiled by Daily Racing Form, total commingled handle on the Del Mar races was $360,944,231, a decline of 7.8 percent from a handle of $391,819,361 at a 30-day meeting last year. The 2022 summer meeting had handle of $439,674,337 on Del Mar’s races.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Phil D’Amato’s stable was as hot as the Southern California weather for the final two weekends of the Del Mar meeting that ended on Sunday.

On Aug. 31, D’Amato won three graded stakes on the same day for the first time in his career. Last Saturday, D’Amato won three races, including two stakes, and watched Vodka With a Twist lose a photo finish to Tenma in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante.

“I was a nose away,” D’Amato said of another day with three stakes win.

James “Sweet” Hodges, a longtime trainer based at Louisiana Downs, died Thursday of a heart-related issue at the age of 87, track chaplain Jimmy Sistrunk confirmed.

Sistrunk said services are set for Tuesday at Hill Crest Funeral Home in Haughton, La., which is near Louisiana Downs. There is a visitation from 1-2 p.m. Central, with the funeral to follow at 2 p.m. Sistrunk will be officiating. He is close friends with Hodges and his wife, Phyllis.