SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though Saratoga boasts a rich stakes schedule, it is the 2-year-old program that truly makes this 40-day meet special.

One never knows from where racing’s next star will emerge, but the confluence of top barns from New York and Kentucky make it likely that at least one 2-year-old of significance will emerge from here.

The winners of all three Triple Crown races in 2012 had run here the previous summer. Last year saw the debuts of subsequent graded stakes winners Honor Code, Havana, Sweet Reason and Stopchargingmaria.

Friday’s $29,500 first-level allowance feature brings together an evenly matched group of Louisiana-breds. Witch Hunt, fourth in the Lafayette Stakes June 21, could be a slight favorite in the 5 1/2-furlong affair. The Brett Brinkman charge picked up a non-winners-of-two victory for a $20,000 claiming price in his only other start here this season. Jansen Melancon has the return call.

OPELOUSAS, La. – Things could start to look a little different atop the Evangeline Downs jockey ranks beginning this week.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The local 2-year-old division was so loaded at Del Mar last summer that California Chrome could only manage to finish fifth in the season-ending Del Mar Futurity, a race in which top-class runners Tamarando and Dance With Fate ran one-two, while the Del Mar Debutante went to She’s a Tiger, who went on to be named her division’s champion.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - With division leader Untapable confirmed to take on males in the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 27, the field for Sunday’s Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga is expected to draw a field of seven 3-year-old fillies.

The field will be led by Kentucky Oaks runner-up My Miss Sophia and her stablemate Stopchargingmaria, the winner of the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. Both fillies are trained by Todd Pletcher.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Ring Weekend, the winner of the Tampa Bay Derby on dirt in March, will return to the grass in Friday’s co-feature, the $100,000 Sir Cat Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile. In his only turf race, Ring Weekend finished second to Divine Oath in a maiden race at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 18. Divine Oath won Saturday’s Grade 3 Arlington Derby.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainers D. Wayne Lukas and Todd Pletcher have combined to win 10 runnings of the Schuylerville Stakes for juvenile fillies. There’s a 40 percent chance that one of them will win it again.

Only five 2-year-old fillies were entered Tuesday for the Grade 3, $150,000 Schuylerville Stakes, the traditional opening-day feature on Friday’s 10-race card at Saratoga. Due to the short field, it will be run as race 3 on the program.

Laurel Park’s fall stakes schedule was approved by the Maryland Racing Commission on Tuesday. The schedule is similar to 2013, but the dates of some races have changed as the 2014 meet opens approximately two weeks earlier than a year ago.

Major changes to the schedule are:

* The $350,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash will be run Nov. 15 this year as it continues to search for a home on the calendar. In 2012, the De Francis was run Oct. 27. Last year, it was moved up to opening weekend and held Sept. 21.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - If Wise Dan makes it back to run in the Grade 2 Fourstardave Handicap on Aug. 9, he might face a familiar rival in Seek Again, who came within a head of Wise Dan in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic on Derby Day at Churchill Downs.

Originally thought to be headed for the Arlington Million, Seek Again is now being pointed to the $500,000 Fourstardave, according to trainer Billy Mott.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Like a runner on the anchor leg of a relay race, Phil D’Amato has taken the baton and run with it. After working as an assistant to trainer Mike Mitchell for 11 years, D’Amato heads into his first Del Mar meeting with a large stable and very well could compete for the title as leading trainer, a position often held by his mentor.

Mitchell recently stepped down following a career in which he won a record 476 races at Del Mar and led the standings here for seven summers.