ALTOONA, Iowa – The final card of the Iowa Festival of Racing on Saturday is topped by the $300,000 Cornhusker Handicap but also has a strong undercard that includes the Grade 3, $200,000 Iowa Oaks and the Grade 3, $250,000 Iowa Derby, both at 1 1/16 miles.

Ten fillies will line up in a stellar renewal of the Iowa Oaks, which features Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan winner Fiftyshadesofhay and So Many Ways, winner of last summer’s Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga who most recently took the Grade 3 Eight Belles on the Kentucky Oaks undercard.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – His critics argue that Wise Dan, as the reigning Horse of the Year, should further prove his greatness by venturing outside the comfort of his niche, perhaps by running in longer races or dirt races or something other than middle-distance turf events. The Grade 2 Firecracker Handicap, they say, might even be beneath him.

ALTOONA, Iowa – Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap, this meet’s signature event, has attracted multiple graded stakes winners Prayer for Relief and Silver Max.

The 1 1/8-mile Cornhukser is one of three stakes on the second and final card of the Iowa Festival of Racing. The other races are the Grade 3, $250,000 Iowa Derby and the Grade 3, $200,000 Iowa Oaks.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – They can’t keep up with him.

The more that jockey Joe Talamo rides Obviously, the more he sees that the 5-year-old gelding is almost unbeatable as a front-runner. Obviously used that tactic to win his third graded stakes in the last year in the Grade 2 American Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park on May 25, a performance that makes him a heavy favorite to win Saturday’s $300,000 Shoemaker Mile on turf.

[HOLLYWOOD PARK: Get PPs, watch Saturday’s full card live]

The announcement in May that Hollywood Park, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, would cease racing at the end of the year could not help but bring back memories of Swaps, perhaps the greatest Thoroughbred ever bred in California.

On July 1, 1958, Hollywood Park dedicated a bronze statue of the Hall of Fame champion just inside the entrance to its clubhouse. For 55 years, the statue has greeted millions of visitors from around the world, including those attending three Breeders’ Cups.

Midway through the fair circuit last summer, trainer Keith Nations noticed a difference in Control Seeker and predicted a big race for him. Control Seeker responded by winning the Joseph T. Grace Handicap on the turf at Santa Rosa and later won the Bulldog Handicap on the dirt at Fresno.

After entering the 7-year-old Control Seeker in Saturday’s 1 1/16-mile, $50,000 County of Alameda Handicap at the Alameda County Fair, Nations made a similar prediction.

“I think he’s sitting on a really big race,” Nations said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Pocahontas and Iroquois are among a handful of longstanding fixtures being assimilated into a schedule of eight stakes at the new 12-day September meet at Churchill Downs.

Thirteen jockeys have won the Hollywood Gold Cup at least twice. Laffit Pincay won the stake nine times, starting when he was 23 and for the ninth time when he was 55. Bill Shoemaker won it eight times, and three riders − Shoemaker, George Woolf and Jerry Lambert − won it three straight years. But for some jockeys − the best in the business, even Hall of Famers − the Gold Cup was elusive. No better example than Chris McCarron, who tried unsuccessfully 19 times. For nine minutes one year, McCarron thought he finally had the Gold Cup won, until the stewards disqualified his horse.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Black Hornet will clash with the unbeaten Langstaff on Saturday in the $150,000 Achievement Stakes, a six-furlong dash for Ontario-breds that could determine the leading 3-year-old sprinter at Woodbine.

Black Hornet wintered in Ontario after a promising 2-year-old season, which included a runner-up placing in an allowance to Clearly Now. Trainer Pat Parente felt the gelding probably needed his comeback in the six-furlong Woodstock Stakes, in which he floundered to fifth after giving the eventual winner, Dan the Tin Man, an early tussle.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Dayatthespa, winner of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup last year, continues her comeback with a return to graded stakes on Saturday in the $100,000 Eatontown Handicap for fillies and mares on turf at Monmouth Park.

A 4-year-old chestnut trained by Chad Brown, Dayatthespa tops a field of nine going 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 3 event.

The solid lineup includes a trio of Grade 3 winners over the course last season: Ruthenia from the Violet, Laughing from the Matchmaker, and defending Eatontown champion Silver Screamer.