SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though he won two Grade 1 stakes with his older dirt males over the weekend, trainer Todd Pletcher’s biggest victory may be the fact Mindframe was unharmed during a scary incident in the opening stages of Sunday’s $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga.

Mindframe ran loose for about a mile of the Jockey Gold Cup after he lost rider Irad Ortiz Jr. as a result of a chain of reaction of crowding and bumping that ultimately forced Ortiz to hit the ground. Fortunately, Ortiz escaped serious injury.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Saturday’s Pacific Classic day program at Del Mar showed an increase in attendance and handle compared to 2024, according to figures released by the track.

Del Mar drew an ontrack crowd of 13,342 compared to 12,494 in 2024. The attendance was the highest of the decade, but well below 20,686 in 2019, the last running of the Pacific Classic before the pandemic.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Gimme a Nother, a two-time Group 1 winner in South Africa in 2024, will attempt to win for the first time in North America in this Saturday’s Grade 2 John C. Mabee Stakes at Del Mar.

Considering Gimme a Nother’s game performance in the Grade 2 Canadian Stakes at Woodbine on July 20, a second-place finish by a head as the even-money favorite, trainer Graham Motion said over the weekend that he believes she can achieve a breakthrough win.

“I thought she was a little unlucky and ran a good race,” he said.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Formidable Man, winner of Saturday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Mile, and two other turf stakes this year, is unlikely to race again until the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

“We’ll take it day by day,” trainer Michael McCarthy said on Sunday. “Maybe we won’t run until the Breeders’ Cup Mile. We’ll keep our options open. I think he’ll be very effective off a nine-week gap.”

If Formidable Man starts in the BC Mile, he will risk an unbeaten six-race record on the Del Mar turf since he won his debut in a maiden race here in September 2023.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There’s a brown wooden box with a slit in it on his desk that reads Stakes Nominations. It may be the only thing that has been in the racing office at the New York Racing Association longer than Andrew Byrnes.

“I said to myself in March, I’m taking that with me,” said Byrnes, NYRA’s stakes coordinator since 1999, who announced his retirement in January.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Friday’s workout tab over the Oklahoma turf course was a limited one, with many trainers canceling scheduled breezes due to morning showers. But there still was some star power amongst the approximately two dozen horses who did work, a list that included Grade 1 Arlington Million winner Fort Washington for trainer Shug McGaughey.