ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – There was a $200,000 turf race for 3-year-olds, the Centaur, Wednesday at Indiana Grand, and Belmont Park this weekend hosts a $1.25 million race, the Belmont Derby, in the same division. Even so, the $200,000 American Derby, part of the July 12 Million Preview card at Arlington, has a chance to come together as a decent race.

As of Friday, there were seven more-or-less confirmed starters for the American Derby, the local prep for the Grade 1 Secretariat on Aug. 16. The group, if it holds, is headed by shippers from New York, California, and England.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Irad Ortiz Jr., the second-leading rider at the meet, received two careless-riding suspensions in a span of three racing days.

On Sunday, he is to begin serving a three-day ban for careless riding in the Manila Stakes on June 28, when his mount, the favored Green Mask, came over and bothered Long On Value, who recovered to finish second, while Green Mask finished fourth.

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ELMONT, N.Y. - Strapping Groom, last year’s Grade 1 Forego winner, has returned to the work tab, with a likely return planned for the Saratoga meet, trainer and part-owner David Jacobson said.

Strapping Groom has not run since finishing fifth in the Grade 1 Carter in April. Prior to that, he won the Gravesend and the Grade 3 Tom Fool over Aqueduct’s inner track. He has had a trio of three-furlong breezes at Aqueduct.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin got his newfound relationship with Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Farm off on a positive note Thursday, when he sent out the 2-year-old filly Cavorting to an 11-length debut victory.

Cavorting, a daughter of Bernardini who was a $360,000 weanling purchase, covered six furlongs in 1:11.37 and earned a creditable 79 Beyer Speed Figure.

“Very nice filly,” McLaughlin said. “Ian Brennan broke her and sent her up here, and she was ready to go. Since she came, she’s been pretty special.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – Close Hatches, the leading female horse in training, has not breezed since her victory over Princess of Sylmar and Beholder in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps here on Belmont Stakes Day. That has been by design, said trainer Bill Mott.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Following Koffee Grinder’s impressive win Tuesday in the $50,000 Chris Loseth Handicap, trainer Craig MacPherson immediately started mapping out the best way to have the talented 3-year-old primed for the Grade 3, $150,000 British Columbia Derby on Sept. 14.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Jockey Martin Pedroza was eight races into his comeback from a shin injury when he won on Thursday aboard Chattering Class in a maiden claimer at Los Alamitos.

Headed toward the winner’s circle, Pedroza was swept by a sense of relief and satisfaction. The result was what he said he needed to show others that he had recovered.

“I know I’m fit, but trainers want to see you ride and they want to see you win,” Pedroza said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Dale Romans said his three stable stars likely will stay put at Churchill Downs pending their next races while he takes the rest of his better horses to Saratoga for the summer.

Romans said he has yet to determine a next race for Silver Max, the 5-year-old turf star who won the Grade 2 Firecracker Stakes on closing weekend of the Churchill Downs meet when making his first start in almost eight months.

Jockeys Don Simington, Fabio Arguello Jr., and apprentice Vanessa Fry are all in different stages of healing after sustaining riding injuries in the Mid-South region over the past several months. Simington is hopeful he will be back in action soon at Louisiana Downs, while Arguello said he is targeting a fall return, and Fry underwent surgery last Sunday.

CYPRESS, Calif. - Summer seems to be the ideal season for Soi Phet, who won Thursday’s $101,000 Bertrando Stakes for California-breds on the opening day of the Los Alamitos Thoroughbred meeting.

Last summer, after being claimed for $16,000, Soi Phet won four consecutive races at Hollywood Park and Del Mar.

Thursday’s Bertrando Stakes was Soi Phet’s second consecutive win. He won a starter handicap at Santa Anita on June 8 in his previous start. Soi Phet will run next in the $200,000 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar on July 24, trainer Leonard Powell said.