POMONA, Calif. – Attendance is down at Fairplex Park. Blame the heat wave. Handle is up at Fairplex. Credit the carryovers.
The 13-day race meet at the Los Angeles County Fair passed the halfway point Saturday, and while triple-digit weekend temperatures contributed to a 20 percent decline in attendance, bettors continue to send it in, particularly from out of state.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Grade 3, $154,500 Ontario Derby, an open 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds which was part of Woodbine Mile Day for the first time, provided the venue for Stealcase’s first stakes win.

“We always knew he was a good horse,” said Mark Casse, who trains the Kentucky-bred Stealcase for John Oxley and had started the colt in races such as Saratoga’s Grade 1 Travers and Monmouth’s Grade 1 Haskell before his Woodbine debut on Sunday.

POMONA, Calif. – Edwin Maldonado was new on the block in 2010, riding at Fairplex Park for the first time. It was going to be a short stint in California.

“It was just until the fair ended, and then go back to Louisiana,” Maldonado said. “It was just for three weeks. I never thought to stay.”

Maldonado never went home. Two years after his first California ride, Maldonado has become one of the circuit’s top riders and is positioned for an unlikely achievement – unseating Martin Pedroza as leading jockey at the Los Angeles County Fair.

Alpha and Golden Ticket, the two 3-year-olds colts who dead-heated in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes on Aug. 25 at Saratoga, were both entered on Monday in Saturday’s $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing in Philadelphia, headlining a star-studded race card that also includes the first match-up of the 3-year-old fillies Questing and My Miss Aurelia.

Jonathan Sheppard notched the 3,000th victory of his illustrious career Monday when Fugitive Angel was up in the final jumps to capture the seventh race at Delaware Park in Stanton, Del.

Sheppard became the 28th trainer in North American racing history to hit the milestone. The 71-year-old Englishman is one of the most accomplished trainers in the game, having been inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1990 as arguably the all-time greatest trainer of steeplechase horses in America.

Death and taxes may be life’s only sure things, but for the past six years Karakorum Elektra on turf at Belmont has been pretty close. The 8-year-old mare will vie for favoritism with Eden Is Burning, Wholelottashakin. and Jitney if Wednesday’s opener, and nominal feature, stays on the Widener course.

POMONA, Calif. – Two Craig Lewis-trained veterans that know their way around a five-eighth-mile bullring are in with a chance this week in stakes races at the Los Angeles County Fair.

Clubhouse Ride runs 6 1/2 furlongs Wednesday in the $50,000 Governor’s Cup Handicap, while Quindici Man runs 1 1/8 miles on closing-day Sunday in the $100,000 Ralph M. Hinds. Could both horses win?

“Things have to go really, really right for both of them, but they are both very decent horses,” Lewis said.

Wet grounds and the forecast of more heavy rain in the south-central Kentucky region prompted officials at Kentucky Downs to cancel the entire eight-race Monday card about an hour before first post.

Officials said Monday they could not find a way to make up the canceled program, so the eight-race Wednesday program will be the last of a meet reduced from six to five days.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – While Cityscape was a mild disappointment as the third-place finisher in the Woodbine Mile, two of his fellow European invaders snagged the top prizes in Sunday’s other two graded turf stakes here.

Wigmore Hall, winner of last year’s Northern Dancer, repeated his success in the Grade  1, $504,000 stakes for 3-year-olds and upward at 1 1/2 miles.

Earlier on the program, Barefoot Lady had made her North American debut a winning one in the Grade 2, $314,200 Canadian Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

Three of the eight scheduled starters were scratched Saturday from the premier race of the Kentucky Downs meet, the Grade 3 Kentucky Turf Cup. One of those scratches, Rezif, actually won the race in 2010 over a yielding course, but trainer and co-owner Matthew Jacobson thought the 2012 renewal came up just a little too salty for his taste.