ELMONT, N.Y. – After Dance to Bristol left Saratoga with her second stakes victory of the meet in the Grade 1 Ballerina, trainer Ollie Figgins III figured his filly’s next engagement would be a tad easier.

Not so much.

When Dance to Bristol seeks her eighth consecutive victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Gallant Bloom Handicap at Belmont Park, she will face a group that includes Grade 1 winner Dance Card, the undefeated Grade 2 winner Cluster of Stars, and the recent sharp overnight stakes winner Holiday Soiree.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs has released its stakes schedule for the 2013 fall meet with the only major changes being a lack of 2-year-old stakes on the front end of a five-week meet that begins Oct. 27.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gulfstream Park has added the Sunshine Millions Preview Day on Nov. 9 to the stakes schedule for the current summer-fall meeting, which runs through Nov. 30. The Preview Day card, which will comprise eight stakes for Florida-breds worth a total of $1 million in purses, will serve as a prep for the $1.3 million Sunshine Millions, to be held at Gulfstream on Jan. 18.

Portales, who has banked more than $100,000 through her six appearances at Assiniboia Downs, heads a field of nine 3-year-old fillies in Saturday’s Jack Hardy Stakes.

The $30,000 Jack Hardy, a 1 1/16-mile race, will go as the sixth of seven races on the penultimate card of the meeting. Post time for the first race is 7 p.m. Central.

Portales, based in Minnesota with trainer Charlie Smith, is 3 for 3 over the Assiniboia oval this year, with her successes including the six-furlong Chantilly and one-mile Assiniboia Oaks.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Three of the nine 3-year-old fillies entered in the $100,000 Dogwood Stakes on Saturday afternoon at Churchill Downs also were cross-entered in the $400,000 Charles Town Oaks later that evening, and two of them are forsaking their Kentucky homes for West Virginia.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It just doesn’t seem fair. Trainer Marty Wolfson will send out a four-pronged attack against the only 3-year-old in the field, the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint-bound Wildcat Lily, in Saturday’s $100,000 Musical Romance Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The race is named in honor of the winner of the 2011 Filly and Mare Sprint, who was based in south Florida with trainer Bill Kaplan throughout her racing career.

The biggest question confronting regulators and investigators as they examine an incident in late January at Tampa Bay Downs in which a horse was scratched after being administered an illegal substance is whether a veterinarian would act unilaterally in deciding to inject a horse on race day.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The race to become this year’s Canadian champion 3-year-old filly remains contentious, and Spring in the Air and Leigh Court will try to bolster their cases for divisional honors Saturday at Woodbine in the $125,000 La Lorgnette, a 1 1/16-mile stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Polytrack.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Iscar saved the day for trainer Dino Condilenios and owner Swift Thoroughbreds when he got up just in time to edge Hockley in a $20,000 claiming race going 1 1/16 miles Sept. 2. His stablemate Stratify was sent off as the 9-5 favorite but lost his chance when he reared at the break and hit his head on the starting gate. Iscar was taking a big step up in price after winning a $7,500 claiming race Aug. 11 and paid $19.00.

The horse trailers are being loaded, time to hit the road.

It is closing weekend at the Los Angeles County Fair. By the end of next week, the Barretts Racing at Fairplex stables will be empty and the track will be dark.

The short meet produced just a minor blip on the national scene. Winners and losers came and went. Soon, most will be forgotten.

Not soon forgotten are three horsemen who once walked away from the sport, only to be pulled back. Their paths crossed this fall at the fair. One might never guess they shared a single thing in common.