HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Ralph Nicks has reported that his graded-stakes-winning speedster Speechify has been sidelined due to a minor suspensory injury. The 5-year-old is used to overcoming adversity, surviving as he does on a liquid diet due to a restricted esophagus which prevents him from eating solid food.

“It’s nothing major, just a little setback,” said Nicks. “He’ll miss 60 days and then be back in training.”

Speechify’s most important victory came here early last winter in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector.

Oaklawn president Charles Cella has taken great care to build up the program for 3-year-olds at his Hot Springs, Ark., track, and the series reached a pinnacle last weekend when graduate American Pharaoh completed the Triple Crown.

Japan, winner of the Easy Goer Stakes on the Belmont Stakes undercard, likely will make his next start Aug. 1 in the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, trainer Bill Mott said Friday.

Mott said he prefers the Jim Dandy to the Dwyer, a $500,000 one-turn-mile race July 4 at Belmont, due to the spacing on the calendar, and it gives him the opportunity to “go a little farther.” The Jim Dandy is run at 1 1/8 miles.

“He’s just a baby,” Mott said of Japan. “He should have gotten something out of it. It was a small field, but I thought he looked good doing it.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Fast Anna may not have opened his 2015 campaign to rave reviews off Broadway, but he will be heading to the Big Apple off what really what matters most, a victory.

ELMONT, N.Y. – At least one champion is planning to run in Saratoga Springs this summer.

Judy the Beauty, last year’s champion filly and mare sprinter, is expected to make her next start in the Grade 2, $200,000 Honorable Miss Handicap at Saratoga on July 29, trainer Wesley Ward said. The Honorable Miss is the local prep for the Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina at Saratoga on Aug. 29.

ELMONT, N.Y. – After Willet won the Interborough Stakes on New Year’s Day, trainer and part-owner Jimmy Iselin said it more than likely would be the end of her career.

But Iselin could not let go, and five months later, the 7-year-old New York-bred mare is working toward a return, probably in the $100,000 Dancin Renee Stakes for statebreds on June 28. Willet, a five-time stakes winner who still is searching for her first graded win, has worked three times, including a seven-furlong move in 1:26.63 on June 9 at Aqueduct.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The future appears to be bright for Bluegrass Angus, who rocketed to the head of the class of the local 3-year-old division with an impressive 6 1/4-length romp in the River Rock Casino last Saturday.

He was coming off a runner-up finish in the Jim Coleman Province after being almost out of control in the paddock and then completely washed out in the post parade.

Trainer Craig MacPherson was relieved when Bluegrass Angus was much better behaved in the paddock in the River Rock.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Kobe’s Back, the three-time stakes winner who finished sixth in the $1.25 million Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park on June 6, is unlikely to start again until late summer.

Trainer Peter Eurton said he considers the 4-year-old Kobe’s Back a candidate for the $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs on Aug. 22 at Del Mar instead of the $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs there July 26.

“We’ll probably point for the Pat O’Brien,” Eurton said. “I don’t want to shorten him up too much to go in the early sprint, but that could change.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Dortmund was a tired colt after a fourth-place finish behind American Pharoah in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 16. The performance was enough of a disappointment for trainer Bob Baffert to call for a vacation for the winner of the $1 million Santa Anita Derby in April who also was third May 2 in the Kentucky Derby.

Wise Dan had his first gallop over the main track at Keeneland since returning from his ankle injury when the two-time Horse of the Year went a full circuit Thursday at the Lexington, KY., track.

“Everything’s looking really good,” trainer Charlie LoPresti said. “We’re still alternating days between jogging and galloping, but yeah, this was his first time back to the big track. We had been keeping him [at the training track] until this.”