ALTOONA, Iowa – Friday’s first card of the Iowa Festival of Racing at Prairie Meadows is topped by the $125,000 Iowa Sprint but also includes a pair of $100,000 stakes for fillies and mares, the six-furlong Saylorville and the 1 1/16-mile Iowa Distaff.

ALTOONA, Iowa – The Iowa Festival of Racing, six stakes contested on back-to-back evenings with a combined value of more than $1 million, commences on Friday at Prairie Meadows.

Delaunay, the top-ranked sprinter in North America by Daily Racing Form ’s national handicapper Mike Watchmaker, will take on four rivals Friday in the featured $125,000 Iowa Sprint Handicap at six furlongs. The other Friday stakes are the $100,000 Iowa Distaff and the $100,0000 Saylorville. First post is 6:30 p.m. Central.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Hobbs, a highly successful claim by trainer Kathy Mongeon, gets substantial class relief on Friday in the $46,000 third-level feature on the turf at Monmouth Park.

The 1 1/16-mile race drew a field of eight with only two entered for the optional $50,000 claiming tag: Glass Art and main-track-only runner Wild Louis.

Mongeon has been on a roll lately, turning claimers into stakes winners.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Due to a shortage of horses entered, Hastings canceled Saturday’s card and its card for Friday, July 5.

In agreement with representatives of the Horsemen’s Benevolent Protective Association and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, management made the decision to scrap Saturday in order to have strong cards on Sunday and Monday. Monday is the Canadian holiday of Canada Day.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Ralph Biamonte won last year’s six-furlong Achievement Stakes with Jenna’s Wabbit, a homebred gelding who went on to push his bankroll to $278,750 in a five-start campaign.

On Saturday at Woodbine, Biamonte will be looking to knock out another Achievement with Click, another homebred gelding who will be facing five rivals in the $150,000 sprint stakes for Ontario-foaled 3-year-olds.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – With the promising Skyrish stuck on the also-eligible list, Friday’s Woodbine feature seems wide open, and Ruvee should be prominent in the Ontario-sired allowance race scheduled for six furlongs on grass.

Ruvee, 4, came into his own in the fall, when he ran second in a six-furlong allowance race after a gate-to-wire triumph in an open maiden special weight race.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Five Bar Cartel’s hard-fought win in the $1,071,000 Ed Burke Million Futurity at Los Alamitos last Sunday will lead to a lengthy rest for the undefeated 2-year-old Quarter Horse.

There is too much money at stake in the fall.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – R S Watson is unbeaten in two starts at the Betfair Hollywood Park meeting, with an excellent chance to extend that streak in a first-level $80,000 optional claimer on Friday.

If R S Watson can beat four rivals in the race at 1 1/16 miles, he may not be done for meeting, which ends on July 14. Trainer Adam Kitchingman said he would entertain running R S Watson in the $150,000 Swaps Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles next Thursday.

OPELOUSAS, La. – Jockey Ricky Faul is calling it a career after 35 years in the saddle. The 51-year-old native of Sunset, La., retires with 3,364 victories in a career that began with his first win at Delta Downs in March 1978.

“It’s been a good run,” Faul said. “Heck, it’s been a great run. I don’t want to [retire], but I have to. I sure don’t want to go out in a wheelchair.”

Madeira Park returns to Northlands Park on Friday in search of her first win of the year in the $50,000 John Patrick. The one-mile feature for fillies and mares drew seven horses and appears to be a wide-open event.

Based on her easy wins in the $50,000 Sonoma and the $50,000 Duchess of York at Northlands, Madeira Park was voted the champion 3-year-old filly in Alberta last year. Trained by Dave Forster, Madeira Park won the 1 1/16-mile stakes races by a combined total of 14 1/4 lengths.