The presence of the longshot Mary’s Boy Bolt in Sunday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity could be a unique manner of keeping a top race in the family.

Mary’s Boy Bolt is by Bolt d’Oro, who won the race in 2017. Bolt d’Oro was trained by Mick Ruis, who recently returned to training after a four-year absence.

Ruis’s daughter Shelbe trained the family’s stable in recent years, but stepped away in the spring after the birth of a daughter. Shelbe’s husband, Antonio Garcia, trained the stable for several months until Mick Ruis resumed training last month.

Jockey Umberto Rispoli is set to return to riding at Del Mar on Friday, slightly more than a week after he was unseated when his mount clipped heels in early stretch of a race on Aug. 31.

Rispoli, who turned 35 on Aug. 31, is booked to ride six of the eight races on Friday’s program, and eight of the 11 races on Saturday, including all three stakes.

Rispoli escaped serious injury when he was unseated. He was briefly hospitalized that afternoon for tests, and did not ride through Labor Day weekend.

DEL MAR, Calif. — It’s never too early to start thinking about Christmas. Or, in the case of the undefeated colt, Dr. Venkman, a start in a major race on the day after Christmas.

Dr. Venkman won his second start in an allowance race at seven furlongs at Del Mar last Saturday at 2-5, closing from third before drawing away by an impressive 5 1/2 lengths.

Despite strong business on Pacific Classic day last Saturday, handle for the Del Mar summer meeting will show declines from 2022.

Mike Ernst, the track’s chief financial officer, said on Wednesday that all-sources handle for the season is down “a little more than 9 percent.” The eight-week summer meeting began on July 21 and concludes on Sunday.

This year, the season included 30 days of racing compared to 31 in 2022. Del Mar did not race on Sunday, Aug. 20 because of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Hilary.

Aqueduct will offer 33 stakes worth $6.385 million during its 31-day fall meet, Nov. 2-Dec. 31, the New York Racing Association announced Wednesday.

There will be 10 graded stakes topped by the Grade 2 Cigar Mile, downgraded from a Grade 1 by the American Graded Stakes Committee. The NYRA has cut the purse of the race to $600,000 from $750,000.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The end of the Saratoga meet is usually met with a tinge of sadness.

This year, it’s met more with a sigh of relief.

The 2023 Saratoga meet will be remembered for 12 equine fatalities – eight racing, four training and the most since 2017. That included two eerily similar ones in nationally televised races. The meet will be remembered for wet weather that forced 65 races off the turf and for curious decisions that led to frustration for bettors.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - When Linda Rice won the first race of the Saratoga meet on July 13, she was asked if she could finish the meet as leading trainer.

“Unlikely,” Rice said.

 When Rice won the last race of the meet Monday with Lt. Mitchell, the unlikely became reality as she finished in a tie atop the trainer standings with Chad Brown. Both won 35 races at the 40-day meet.

For Rice, it was her second Saratoga title as she won the 2009 meet outright with 20 victories. For Brown, it was his sixth title and third straight.

Jockey Antonio Fresu, second in the Del Mar standings through Sunday, was sanctioned for a third violation of excessive use of the whip in the last week on Monday and has been suspended 32 calendar days from Saturday through Oct. 9.

Fresu received two seven-day penalties, one 15-day penalty, and three single-day penalties, one for each infraction.

The timeline regarding the penalties was originally more severe.

The terms of two of the three penalties were amended on Monday to cover calendar days and not racing days.