OCEANPORT, N.J. – Trainer Bobby Dibona likes where he is sitting with Hard Enough heading into the $60,000 Restoration Stakes for 3-year-olds on turf, the Saturday feature at Monmouth Park.

“I think he’s awesome,” Dibona said. “I plan on winning it.”

Dibona claimed Hard Enough for $50,000 over the winter at Gulfstream Park. The chestnut colt has won twice since then, including a 12-1 upset in Monmouth’s Jersey Derby last month.

The Jersey Derby returned Hard Enough to his own age group following a pair of third-place efforts against older rivals in allowance races.

EDMONTON, Alberta – Trainer Robertino Diodoro is the epitome of calm heading into Saturday’s 84th running of the Grade 3, $200,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park, where he will saddle the likely favorite, Broadway Empire, in the richest race in Western Canada.

Diodoro is hoping some of his relaxed attitude will rub off on Broadway Empire, who has more than one hurdle to overcome if he is going to be able to carry his substantial speed around four turns in the 1 3/8-mile derby, which drew 12 horses.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Ramsey juggernaut knows so few bounds today that even turf stakes run at the inordinately long (and odd) distance of 1 11/16 miles are part of the domain.

Dark Cove, who earlier this year was running in claiming races, will be carrying the familiar red-and-white silks of Ken and Sarah Ramsey on Saturday as a prime contender in the $400,000 American St. Leger, the first of four straight major stakes on the Arlington Million program at Arlington Park.

V ANCOUVER, British Columbia – Pretty Reckless looks like the one to beat when she makes her second lifetime start in a first-level allowance race that will serve as Saturday’s feature at Hastings. If she takes the slightest step forward following her impressive debut, Pretty Reckless is going to be a handful in the 6 1/2-furlong sprint for fillies and mares that drew six horses.

The large crowd that is expected to show up to watch the Grade 3 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park on Saturday also will get a treat watching Commander at work in the $50,000 Westerner Handicap. The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up drew a solid field of seven horses, but there isn’t much doubt the race goes through Commander, who drew the rail and will be prominent right from the start.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. − It has been a long time, nearly a quarter-century, since trainer Richard Mandella was dispatched on a scouting mission to South America by Hollywood Park chairman and prominent horse owner R.D. Hubbard. On that first trip, to Argentina in 1989, Mandella found a horse named Leger Cat. Imported to North America, Leger Cat won multiple graded stakes and earned $1 million. More important, he opened a pipeline that supplied Mandella with a series of excellent racehorses.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The pick six paid $57,967 to 20 ticketholders at Del Mar on Wednesday, a day when two favorites won pick-six races and another was disqualified from first to third.

The winners of Wednesday’s pick-six races were Calameera ($7.40), Bas ($20.60), Tiz a Kiss ($7.20), Unbridled Giant ($6.20), Sirocco Strike ($16.40), and Dolphin Shorts ($15.20).

DEL MAR, Calif. – The $100,690 Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar on Wednesday was decided in the stewards room when race winner Distinctiv Passion was disqualified and placed third for lugging out in the stretch, resulting in the promotion of Sirocco Strike from second to first.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Left a Message stormed home through the stretch to notch her first stakes in the $100,200 Flaming Page on Wednesday night at Woodbine.

Left a Message ($3.60), based at Arlington Park with trainer Tom Proctor, raced toward the rear of the nine-horse field on the backstretch of the 12-furlong marathon. She loomed three wide into contention on the far turn  and then hit the front early in the lane before going on to prevail by 3 1/4 lengths, in 2:27.65 over the firm turf.

Fair Grounds in New Orleans has canceled the first two dates of its Quarter Horse meet that was to open Friday and called for a mandatory evacuation of its stable area because of a storm system approaching the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters are projecting tropical weather could hit the New Orleans area by the end of the week. The track now plans to open its meet on Wednesday, Aug. 21.

Fair Grounds has about 1,000 horses in its stable area. The evacuation also applies to all stable workers. The decision to evacuate was announced at 5:30 p.m. Central on Wednesday.