At Saratoga Friday morning, Godolphin Racing’s Grade 1 winners Alpha and Questing each put in workouts over the synthetic surface at the Godolphin – formerly Greentree – training center.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Plotting out the future for 21 maiden winning 2-year-olds isn’t easy, especially when there are limited opportunities to run on dirt. Thus, Pletcher has made plans for some, though not all, of his juvenile arsenal.

Kauai Katie, the Adirondack winner, and Unabashed, a 4 1/2-length debut winner, are being pointed to the Grade 2, $200,000 Matron at six furlongs here on Sept. 30. Jocosity, who won his maiden by 7 1/2 lengths in his dirt debut – his third career start – is possible for the Grade 2, $200,000 Futurity, also at six furlongs, on the same day.

AUBURN, Wash. – In racing lexicon, “getting a lot of calls” as the front-runner is a good thing, and Sunday, two speedy horses trained by Charles Essex will get plenty of calls from track announcer Robert Geller during Washington Cup Day at Emerald Downs.

Alsvid will be seeking the fifth stakes win of his young career Sunday at Zia Park, when he starts as the 123-pound highweight in the $100,000 Premiere Cup Handicap. The race, to be run over six furlongs, is the first of the meet’s three major open-company stakes for Thoroughbreds.

ELMONT, N.Y. – It is not as prestigious as the Grade 1 Spinaway, but Sunday’s $80,000 Meadow Star Stakes at Belmont Park could be the path to more prestigious prizes this fall for Dreaming of Julia.

Scratched from last Sunday’s Spinaway so that she wouldn’t run against her stablemate Teen Pauline, Dreaming of Julia figures a heavy favorite against four opponents in the Meadow Star, a one-turn mile race that could lead the winner to the Grade 1 Frizette here on Oct. 6.

BOSSIER CITY, La. – Jockey Joe Talamo was traveling to Louisiana Downs on Friday to spend some time catching up with old friends before he was to ride favorite Blueskiesnrainbows in the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby on Saturday.

Talamo, 22, launched his career at Louisiana Downs and rode his first winner here, on July 9, 2006. He has since become one of Southern California’s top jockeys, and after closing out a stellar meet at Del Mar on Wednesday he flew to his home in New Orleans on Thursday. Talamo said he was looking forward to his time this weekend at Louisiana Downs.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Management’s decision to cancel turf training here Friday, with a weekend of major turf racing set for next Saturday, Sept. 15, and Sunday, Sept. 16, perplexed a number of trainers who had planned workouts on the surface.

But Sean Gault, senior manager of racing surfaces for the Woodbine Entertainment Group, was convinced that he made the correct call.

“The turf was still soft this morning from the rain on Tuesday,” Gault said. “We had 46 millimeters (more than 1.8 inches) of rain.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Six of the last 14 winners of the $150,000 Swynford Stakes were eventually crowned champion 2-year-old in Canada, which includes subsequent Grade 1 winners Mine That Bird and Exciting Story. The unbeaten Uncaptured will continue in his attempt to add his name to the honor roll Sunday at Woodbine in the 57th running of the seven-furlong sprint.

FORT ERIE, Ontario – David O’Connor worked with Thoroughbreds growing up in Ireland and ever since he arrived in Canada some 40 years ago.

“My teenage years in Ireland were spent at Glencairn Stables, owned by the famous Irish horseman Seamus McGrath,” O’Connor said. “They teach it all at Glencairn and at 14 years of age I was doing it all, from hot-walking to grooming to galloping.”

O’Connor, 56, said that as an apprentice, he was assigned to the low level of the stable environment.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Craig MacPherson isn’t sure what Stormin for Becka is going to do when he runs in the $100,000 Jack Diamond Futurity at Hastings on Sunday. The 6 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-olds drew eight horses and is one of the five stakes races supporting the Grade 3, $200,000 British Columbia Derby. Post time for the first of 10 races is 12:50 p.m. Pacific.