AUBURN, Wash. – When the crowd gathers for Washington Racing Hall of Fame induction ceremonies Saturday night at Emerald Downs, it will surely be said about Ricky Frazier that the man could ride a racehorse.

Frazier won five Emerald Downs riding titles during the seven seasons from 2004-10 before his career came to a stunning halt in a freak accident in Fresno, Calif., where a head-to-head collision with a horse caused head injuries so severe that symptoms persist nearly four years later.

Just Call Kenny, sixth in the Haskell Invitational and second in the Long Branch Stakes in two starts following a six-month layoff, is under consideration for the Grade 3, $300,000 Smarty Jones at Parx on Sept. 1, according to trainer Patrick McBurney. The Smarty Jones, at one mile and 70 yards, is the local prep for the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 20.

“He bounced out of the Haskell good,” McBurney said. “We’re kind of looking at taking him to the Smarty Jones at Parx now.”

Having a 3-year-old filly place in a Grade 2 race is normally cause for celebration, but trainer John Servis was not a happy camper after Joint Return got up for second in the Delaware Oaks.

“I was a little disappointed,” he said. “She leaves herself so much to do because of her running style.”

Servis, who is based at Parx, entered Joint Return in last week’s Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks but decided to scratch and instead give her a chance against better in the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama on Saturday at Saratoga. He will equip her with blinkers in an attempt to get more out of her.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Friday at Saratoga is billed as “Fabulous Fillies Day,” when the New York Racing Association will celebrate women and their contributions to Thoroughbred racing while raising funds to support breast-cancer research.

The centerpiece of the daylong affair will be the Sizzling Hot Pink Saratoga Hat Luncheon, presented by Escada in the At the Rail Pavilion. Guests will enjoy a cocktail reception at 11:30 a.m. followed by a luncheon at 12:30 p.m.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Over the last five years, graded stakes races have been a bugaboo for trainer Dallas Stewart.

Since Macho Again won the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs on June 13, 2009, Stewart has run in 71 graded stakes, winning just two. One of those came via disqualification. During that time, however, he has run second in 10 graded events, including twice in the Kentucky Derby, once in the Woodward (to Rachel Alexandra) and once in the Whitney.

“If you think about it, it drives you a little bit crazy,” Stewart said Wednesday at Saratoga.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” football coach Vince Lombardi once famously said. But would Lombardi have turned down an ownership stake in the 7-year-old gelding Side Glance, or even the 6-year-old horse Suntracer?

Side Glance has won just one of his last 17 starts but has banked almost $2.5 million in purses during his 36-start career. He won $500,000 merely by finishing fourth for the second year in a row in the Dubai World Cup this past March.

The annual fair at the Pacific National Exhibition begins Saturday, and for the first time, racing fans won’t have to pay the admission fee to go to the track. Hastings, which sits on the PNE site, has been fenced off from the fairgrounds, and patrons will be able to access the track without going through the fair.

The fair ends on Labor Day, Sept. 1, and for the next couple of weeks, racing will be conducted Fridays and Mondays. The PNE is closed Mondays, and as part of the new deal, parking will be free the next two Mondays. The first race Mondays will be at 4 p.m. Pacific.

Trainer Pedro Alvarado is looking forward to running Dawselina in the Hong Kong Jockey Club next Friday. Dawselina gave Alvarado his first stakes win as a trainer when she upset the heavily favored Arabella’s Muse in the $50,000 B.C. Cup Dogwood on Aug. 4. Alvarado was one of the top riders at Hastings until he retired in 2012.

“I’ve won a lot of stakes as a rider, but this was pretty special,” said Alvarado. “She came out of the race in great shape, and hopefully she’ll run another good race.”

Alvarado said he wasn’t looking past the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Crown Queen certainly had the pedigree to be a stakes horse. The question was: On which surface would she excel?

It became obvious to trainer Bill Mott right away that Crown Queen would take more after her mother, Delta Princess – a three-time graded stakes winner on turf – than her half-sister Royal Delta, a two-time champion and 10-time stakes winner on dirt.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Paulo Lobo, who trained the 2002 champion 3-year-old filly Farda Amiga, has reopened a stable in Southern California after spending the last four years in his native Brazil.

Lobo, 45, and his family arrived in late July. His small stable currently is based at Los Alamitos. Lobo said he worked as a private trainer in Brazil in recent years, an arrangement that ended this summer.

“My contract ended last month,” Lobo said. “Instead of opening a public stable in Brazil, we decided to open a stable here. I was kind of homesick.”