B.J. Wright, a Kentucky native who owned stakes-winning Thoroughbreds in Southern California in recent years, died early Tuesday of cancer, according to his trainer, Mike Pender.

Wright was 76, and had been battling illness in the last year.

Wright campaigned such prominent runners as Jeranimo, a millionaire and eight-time stakes winner, and Ultimate Eagle, who won three stakes, including the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby in 2011. Jeranimo won the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita earlier this year.

OPELOUSAS, La. – All three of last Saturday’s stakes winners at Evangeline Downs emerged in good order and likely are headed upstate to Louisiana Downs for Louisiana Cup Day on Aug. 2. There is a small chance, however, that one might be headed out of state instead.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Grade 2 Highlander Stakes winner Something Extra probably will make his next start at Woodbine in the Grade 2, $200,000 Play the King Stakes on Aug. 10, according to trainer and co-owner Gail Cox.

Something Extra won Sunday’s six-furlong Highlander in front-running fashion by 1 1/4 lengths over 2013 Canadian champion male sprinter Phil’s Dream after looking like he might get swallowed up inside the eighth pole.

“He seems to have come out of it really well,” Cox said. “He’s usually exhausted for a few days, but he’s pretty bright.”

While owner Ron Winchell and trainer Steve Asmussen contemplate whether to run their star filly, Untapable, against the boys July 27 in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational or stay within their division and point to the Coaching Club American Oaks, the field for the $1 million Haskell is beginning to come into focus.

As of Wednesday morning, Monmouth Park stakes coordinator Dan Dufford had six probables for the 1 1/8-mile race, including Bayern, runaway winner of the seven-furlong Woody Stephens Stakes on Belmont Stakes Day.

Normandy Invasion is nearing a return to training after coming out of the Met Mile with a lung infection, according to trainer Larry Jones.

Normandy Invasion finished 10th in the Metropolitan Handicap on June 7. He subsequently was found to have a lung infection. Owner Rick Porter transferred the 4-year-old from trainer Chad Brown to Jones soon after the race. Normandy Invasion now is based at Delaware Park.

“We're waiting for the vet's last checkup,” Jones said. “Once we get the OK, he’ll go back into training.”

Robbie Junk has been named racing secretary for the Zia Park meet that opens Sept. 6, the Hobbs, N.M., track announced Tuesday. Zia also has hired Johnnie Jamison as its starter. The track’s 52-date mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses will run through Dec. 2. 

Junk, 54, was the racing secretary at Zia when the track opened in 2005. He now serves in the same capacity at Sunland Park, the New Mexico track that races from December through April. Jamison, 57, comes to Zia from Indiana Grand.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – English trainer William Haggas’s first North American runner, a colt named Primary, performed well enough, finishing third behind Showing Up and Ivan Denisovich in the 2006 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington. Eight years later and Haggas finally has lined up his second North American starter, Our Channel, another horse for a 3-year-old turf race at Arlington, Saturday’s American Derby.

Despite Haggas’s sparse participation on this continent, he said he has long intended Our Channel for American racing.

CYPRESS, Calif. – The first week of the Los Alamitos summer Thoroughbred meeting ended Sunday with attendance and handle lower than during the corresponding week at now-shuttered Hollywood Park last year.

Over four days, from Thursday through Sunday, Los Alamitos had average ontrack attendance of 3,996, an average ontrack handle of $473,126, and an all-sources average handle of $5,638,202. Los Alamitos had eight-race programs Thursday and Friday and nine-race programs Saturday and Sunday.

Beholder, the two-time champion who was fourth in the $1 million Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park on June 7, has resumed light training after recovering from a pastern injury.

Trainer Richard Mandella said Beholder was ponied over the weekend, her first significant exercise in a month.
“In a couple of days, she’ll start galloping,” he said.

Owned by B. Wayne Hughes, Beholder finished a length behind winner Close Hatches in the Phipps Stakes. She emerged from the race with a pastern injury that Mandella assumed occurred when she was struck by the hoof of a rival.

CYPRESS, Calif. - Apprentice jockey Drayden Van Dyke won four consecutive races Sunday at Los Alamitos to move into a tie for the lead in the jockeys’ standings with Joe Talamo. Both riders have five wins at the meeting.

On Thursday, Van Dyke has six mounts on the eight-race program, while Talamo does not ride. Talamo is back in action Friday.