OPELOUSAS, La. – Last Wednesday marked the long-awaited return of jockey C.J. McMahon. After serving a lengthy suspension for being the aggressor in an altercation at Delta this year, McMahon wasted little time in returning to the winner’s circle, taking the evening’s eighth race at Evangeline Downs with longshot Eyejaykay ($69.80).

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Big Trouble, winner of the Grade 3 Sanford at Saratoga on July 19, will be sidelined for at least the remainder of the year due to a torn suspensory ligament in his right foreleg, trainer Tony Dutrow said.

Dutrow said the injury was diagnosed following Big Trouble’s five-furlong workout at the Fair Hill training center in Maryland on Aug. 1. Big Trouble, unbeaten in two starts, was being pointed to the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga on Sept. 1.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Ribo Bobo, the six-time stakes-winning gelding, has recently been moved to Saratoga to train, according to trainer Jason Servis, who plans to point him to the Grade 1 Vosburgh at Belmont on Sept. 27.

Ribo Bobo, who won 10 of 11 races in 2013, suffered his third loss from six starts this year when third in the Teddy Drone Stakes at Monmouth on July 27. Servis said he decided to move Ribo Bobo up to Saratoga “for a change of scenery.”

OPELOUSAS, La. – Joy of the Saints, the winner of the fillies’ division of last month’s D.S. “Shine” Young Futurity at Evangeline and whose victory in last Saturday’s Louisiana Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes at Louisiana Downs improved her record to a perfect 3 for 3, probably will make her next start against open company in the $100,000 My Trusty Cat at Delta Downs on Oct. 24.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Shared Belief, the unbeaten champion 2-year-old male of 2013, worked six furlongs in 1:13.40 Tuesday at Golden Gate Fields, preparing for a start Aug. 24 in the $1 million Pacific Classic.

Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Shared Belief is the likely favorite in the Pacific Classic, which will be his first stakes appearance against older horses. Shared Belief won the $500,000 Los Alamitos Derby in his 2014 stakes debut on July 5.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar’s beleaguered turf course underwent its most extensive aeration of the season and was watered to the equivalent of a quarter-inch of rain Tuesday in an effort to alleviate the firm conditions that have plagued the course since the July 17 start of the meeting.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Even as greatness was unfolding in front of her, Barbara Banke said she truly didn’t grasp it.
Banke was a relative newcomer to Thoroughbred racing in 2007 and 2008 when she and her husband, Jess Jackson, campaigned Curlin, the strapping chestnut son of Smart Strike who would win 11 of 16 starts including 10 stakes and became the only North American-based horse to top $10 million in earnings.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Explicable, who makes her first career start Friday in race 5, should have a major say in the outcome, according to her trainer, Gary Mandella.

“She’s trained well, and she’s trained sharp,” Mandella said. “She trains like a sharp, fast filly. She’s built like a sprinter.”

Explicable, a daughter of Pioneerof the Nile, was purchased as a yearling in September 2012 for $120,000. Mandella said minor problems prevented her from getting to the races until now.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Ankeny Hill has run well on both turf and synthetic surfaces, and that gives trainer Mark Glatt two tempting options following his sharp allowance victory Saturday.

Ankeny Hill was scheduled to run five furlongs on turf, but the race was moved to the main track because of the temporary suspension of turf racing last weekend. It was no problem for Ankeny Hill, who got a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 96, earning an opportunity for a stakes start next time out.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ride On Curlin and General a Rod, who along with Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome were the only horses to run in the entire Triple Crown this year, are both being freshened at Louisville-area farms, their trainers said Wednesday.

The connections of both horses had considered running in some of the major summer stakes with their colts, but after each worked a single time in early July following the Belmont, they chose to give their runners rest instead.