SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Shug McGaughey scratched Data Link out of the Fourstardave Handicap three weeks ago because he knew the horse had a disdain for soft turf.

When it was suggested that scratching may have been prudent anyway given how well Wise Dan ran in winning the Fourstardave, McGaughey bristled.

“I think if it had been hard turf we’d been very competitive whether Wise Dan was in there or whoever was in there,” McGaughey said.

[Complete coverage of racing at Saratoga: News, PPs, and video]

DEL MAR, Calif. – John Scott, the 5-year-old gelding, is being given an easier finish to his summer campaign than a plan that owner John Harris considered in August.

Last month, Harris and trainer Carla Gaines debated whether to start John Scott in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 26.

They opted to pass in favor of Saturday’s $85,000 Harry Brubaker Stakes over a mile.

[Complete coverage of racing at Del Mar: News, PPs, and video]

AUBURN, Wash. – An eclectic group of six will compete Saturday in the featured eighth race at Emerald Downs, a one-mile $17,500 claimer for fillies and mares that have never won three times.

One of the six has a stakes victory at a mile, while two others will be trying two turns for the first time. The favorite could be Mysincircus, jumping up sharply in class following her five-length victory in a conditioned $7,500 claimer in early August. The race is wide open, with only the likely pacesetter, La Distanza, expected to be a longshot in the wagering.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Get Serious is not just a horse for the course at Monmouth Park, having won five graded stakes there. He also is a horse for a particular kind of course: the firmer the better for the 8-year-old gelding.

If the weather forecast holds, Get Serious could get his preferred footing Saturday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Cliff Hanger Stakes.

The 10-race holiday weekend card also includes the $60,000 Miss Woodford Stakes for 3-year-old filly sprinters.

[bc_video_id:261535:]SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After finishing eighth and last as the 6-5 favorite in the Vanderbilt earlier in the meet with Shackleford, one would think trainer Dale Romans’s confidence might be shaken just a bit when he wheels his versatile multiple Grade 1 winner back in the $500,000 Forego. But the way things have been going recently for Romans in important stakes, it’s easy to see why he still firmly believes he’s got the horse to beat in the Grade 1 dash that shares top billing Saturday at Saratoga with the Grade 1 Woodward.

DEL MAR, Calif. – She has a perfect record after three starts, comes from a top stable, and will be ridden by the leading jockey.

Executiveprivilege seems to have everything in her favor going into Saturday’s $300,000 Del Mar Debutante for 2-year-old fillies.

At stake is a chance to enhance her status as a top contender for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 2. But that race was not foremost on trainer Bob Baffert’s mind earlier this week – at least not publicly.

Spice Swirl moves into open company as she seeks a second straight stakes win and her fourth victory of the season when she heads a field of 10 older fillies and mares going 6 1/2 furlongs in the $10,000 Bill Callihan Stakes on Saturday night at Columbus.

Fair Grounds in New Orleans, which evacuated its backstretch Sunday and canceled this week’s racing because of Hurricane Isaac, sustained minimal damage in the storm, officials said Thursday. But the track was still determining whether or not the logistics will work to make up the four lost dates for Quarter Horses.

A competitive field of nine Ohio-bred fillies and mares will meet Saturday in the $50,000 Rose DeBartolo Memorial Stakes, which should make for one of the most interesting stakes of the Thistledown season.

Trainer Pat Devereux Jr. has gone out of his way to run a horse in his native Kentucky just once in the last 10 years, and that horse, How Pleasant, was a maiden-special winner at the 2012 spring meet at Keeneland. Devereux, based at the Evangeline training center in Lafayette, La., will be back for seconds on Saturday at Ellis Park in western Kentucky with a mare named Bella Medaglia, one of the main contenders in the feature race.