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.

A day later than usual, Del Mar launches its popular summer race meeting Thursday. But this year, the party does not stop Labor Day week.

Two months after the summer meeting closes Sept. 3, Del Mar will run a monthlong autumn meeting in November. The new meeting is part of a redistribution of racing dates following the closure of Hollywood Park last year.

“It’s a different year and a lot of uncertainty in all areas,” said track president Joe Harper. “We’ll learn some lessons and see how it works out.”

Drayden Van Dyke had a set routine at Del Mar last summer. He was an all-around stable hand for trainer Tom Proctor, working before dawn and in the afternoon.

“I’d work in the morning and get done at 10:30 and be back for 2:30 to 4:30 for afternoon chores,” he recalled a few days ago. “Tom wanted me to be a horseman, to do the raking, work in the shed row, and work at feed time.”

Van Dyke, 19, will have a much different routine this summer. Afternoon chores will not be required. Van Dyke will be after the title of leading rider.