OCEANPORT, N.J. – Eddie Plesa Jr. hopes to cap a very successful summer at Monmouth Park with a pair of stakes wins on Sunday in the meet’s premier races for 2-year-olds.

Plesa is well positioned with two strong contenders in both the Grade 3 Sapling, and the Sorority for fillies. The six-furlong races, each worth $100,000, are the final major stakes of a season that concludes on Oct. 6.

Plesa saddles Yes I’m Lucky, unbeaten in three starts, and Run for Logistics in the Sapling. The colts ran one-two in the Tyro Stakes, the Sapling prep run on the turf last month.

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DEL MAR, Calif. – Gabriel Charles has always been a colt with more promise than big-race results.

A stakes winner last year at 2, Gabriel Charles was a fast-closing second in a division of the Oceanside Stakes at Del Mar on July 17, his first start of 2013. The result left trainer Jeff Mullins looking forward to Sunday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Derby over 1 1/8 miles on turf.

Mullins has plenty of company.

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DEL MAR, Calif. – Just as Labor Day weekend arrives, a summer vacation ends for Beholder, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012.

Beholder has not started since finishing second to Princess of Sylmar in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 3. Following that race, she was turned out briefly at a Southern California farm before returning to the racetrack with trainer Richard Mandella.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Heliskier, one of the best racehorses ever bred in Minnesota, will make a return to Festival of Champions Day this Sunday at Canterbury Park. The 20th edition of the Festival of Champions, a day of racing restricted to Minnesota-bred Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, will offer more than $430,000 in stakes purses.

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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher has won four editions of the Grade 1 Spinaway for 2-year-old fillies at Saratoga. None of the four has won it off just one previous start.

In fact, only three of the last 17 runnings of the Spinaway have been won by a filly coming off just one previous race.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Pants On Fire, winner of the Grade 2 Monmouth Cup in his last start, is among the notable shippers expected next weekend for stakes that help open the new 12-day September meet at Churchill Downs.

Trainer Kelly Breen confirmed Friday that Paco Lopez will be in to ride Pants On Fire in the Ack Ack Handicap, one of four graded stakes set for the night card of Saturday, Sept. 7.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Why Katherine, coming off a second-place finish in the Grade 3 Royal North Stakes at six furlongs on the turf, looms as the one to beat here Sunday in the $100,000 Avowal Stakes.

The Avowal, an overnight stakes for fillies and mares at seven furlongs on the turf, attracted a field of eight, and Why Katherine drew well in the outside post.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Bob Tiller will be holding a strong hand in the $125,000 Vice Regent Stakes at Woodbine on Sunday, when he runs Langstaff, Jade Dragon, and Power Phil in the one-mile turf route for 3-year-olds.

Langstaff should be favored off his 3-for-5 record, which includes a fast-closing grass score in the six-furlong Bold Ruckus, another Ontario-sired stakes.

FORT ERIE, Ontario – One of the most memorable events at this 115-year-old racetrack came in 1961 when a gelding named Puss n Boots decided to go for a swim, veered off the turf course in a 1 1/16-mile race, and ended up in the infield lake.

A race named after Puss n Boots was subsequently started, and tradition calls for the winning connections to take a plunge in the infield lake to mark the event.

Wicked Courage has the highest earnings among Quarter Horses this year, at $825,404. The season will not be complete for owner Andrew Smith of Ardmore, Okla., unless Wicked Courage wins an historic running of the All American Derby at Ruidoso Downs on Sunday.

With a purse of $2,809,784, the All American Derby is the richest race in Quarter Horse history, surpassing the All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs, which will be worth $2.6 million on Monday.