There were four riders involved in two frightening spills in Louisiana on Thursday, and all avoided serious injuries. The first incident happened at Louisiana Downs, when jockeys John Jacinto, Rudy Guerra, and Don Simington were thrown in a chain-reaction spill in the sixth race. Jacinto and Guerra were taken to Willis-Knighton Hospital in Shreveport, and Jacinto was found to have a broken left forearm, according to his agent, Richie Price.

AUBURN, Wash. – Cassie Papineau was the toast of Emerald Downs back in 2009, a record-setting apprentice with a winning personality and a bright future. These days, she’s just another journeyman rider trying to land a big horse to reinvigorate her career.

But time is on her side. Papineau, who began the week with six wins from 37 mounts, is just 25 years old.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Though his three Belmont Stakes victories tie him for third most of any jockey, Hall of Fame rider Gary Stevens isn’t taking anything for granted when it comes to the third leg of the Triple Crown.

Having not ridden at Belmont Park since 2005, Stevens – who rides Preakness winner Oxbow in Saturday’s 145th Belmont Stakes – said he is coming to New York early to reacquaint himself with the 1 1/2-mile oval, the largest racetrack in North America.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – If the key players in the Grade 3 Affirmed Handicap Sunday at Betfair Hollywood Park all reproduce their last effort, the race will be easy to predict.

It won’t be.

Manando, Broadway Empire, and Den’s Legacy race for a $100,000 purse in the mile and a sixteenth Affirmed, and fluctuating form cycles complicate analysis.

A pivotal morning looms at Belmont Park on Sunday, as several leading contenders for the 145th Belmont Stakes next Saturday, including Kentucky Derby winner Orb and all of trainer Todd Pletcher’s prospective runners, are scheduled for their final workouts.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - After winning Thursday, the 3-year-olds Chief Havoc and Joelito are candidates for stakes before the end of the Betfair Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting.

Chief Havoc will be pointed to the meeting’s top race for 3-year-olds, the $150,000 Swaps Stakes on July 4, after winning an allowance race over 1 1/8 miles on the synthetic main track in Thursday’s seventh race. The Swaps is run over 1 1/8 miles.

Trainer Peter Miller was barely out of the winner’s circle when he looked at Tony Matos, the agent for winning rider Garrett Gomez, and said, “Swaps.”

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Silentio, who won the Grade 2 Sir Beaufort Stakes at Santa Anita in December, will not start in the $300,000 Shoemaker Mile on June 29 and will be pointed to the Del Mar meeting this summer, trainer Gary Mandella said.

Silentio was fifth behind 2012 Horse of the Year Wise Dan in the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland in April and has not had a workout since that race.

“He deserves a little break,” Mandella said earlier this week.

AUBURN, Wash. – Carving, a multiple stakes winner in Southern California, could establish himself as the leading 3-year-old in the Pacific Northwest with a victory Sunday in the $50,000 Auburn Handicap at Emerald Downs. First post for the 10-race card is 2 p.m. Pacific.

The Kentucky Derby once was in long-range plans for Carving, a Bob Baffert trainee who won his first two starts as a 2-year-old, including a seven-furlong stakes race at Fairplex, and then captured the $100,000 Real Quiet Stakes at Hollywood Park in November.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Sahara Sky, winner of the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile Handicap at Belmont Park last Monday, is headed back to New York later this summer.

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Thursday that Sahara Sky is likely to make his next start in the $500,000 Forego Handicap over seven furlongs at Saratoga on Aug. 31.

“That’s an attractive race,” Hollendorfer said.

Hollendorfer said he was leaning against starting Sahara Sky on the Polytrack synthetic surface at Del Mar later this summer, saying the horse didn’t train well there last year.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Geeky Gorgeous carries top weight of 125 pounds in her first handicap appearance, the $60,000 Open Mind for New Jersey-bred fillies and mares on Sunday at Monmouth Park.

Trainer Danny Lopez has no complaints with the impost assigned his 4-year-old homebred by stakes coordinator Dan Dufford.

“She should be the highweight,” Lopez said. “It’s the race secretary’s job to get them all there to the wire together. I’ve done my job. He’s done his job. Now let’s see what happens.”