DEL MAR, Calif. – The racing week began at Del Mar on Wednesday with trainer Peter Miller on the verge of his first training title and well on his way to the best season of his career.

Saturday, he could have his first Grade 1 win in nearly two years when he starts as many as three fillies in the $300,000 Del Mar Debutante over seven furlongs.

Through Sunday, Miller was tied with Doug O’Neill with 18 wins at the meeting. O’Neill will not add to his total. He began a 40-day suspension on Aug. 19 for a medication violation from 2010.

If the recent dominance of Hastings-based horses running in stakes races at Northlands Park is any indication, Ten Thirty is going to be a handful when she runs in the $50,000 Bird of Pay for 2-year-old fillies Friday. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint drew six horses and there isn’t much doubt Ten Thirty is going to be a solid favorite.

Another arrow pointing at Ten Thirty is her trainer, Greg Tracy. The leading trainer at Northlands, Tracy is having a lot of success with his babies this year, having won 17 races from 53 starts, or 32 percent, with 2-year-olds.

It looks like a full field of 12 3-year-olds will line up in the Grade 3 British Columbia Derby Sept. 9. Fresh faces will help make the premier race at Hastings one of the more interesting renewals in recent years. Expected to ship up from Emerald Downs are Italian Boy and D’honorable One, the second- and third-place finishers in the Emerald Downs Derby on Aug. 12.

A couple of horses that have been racing in the eastern United States really spice up the race.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Haskell winner Paynter was showing signs of improvement Wednesday from his battle with colitis, but he remains in a veterinary clinic near Saratoga Race Course and his connections remain very much concerned about his health.

According to owner Ahmed Zayat, Paynter’s white blood cell count, which was dangerously low on Monday and Tuesday, had doubled by Wednesday morning.

Jackson Bend made big news when he rallied to an easy 3 1/4-length victory to earn his first Grade 1 victory in last year’s Forego. It will be an even more amazing story if he can compete and successfully defend that title on Saturday.

Jackson Bend was one of eight older horses entered Wednesday for the  $500,000 Forego, which along with the $250,000 Bernard Baruch support Saturday’s main event, the Grade 1 Woodward. The Forego will be decided at seven furlongs over the main track, the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch at 1 1/16 miles on the Mellon turf course.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – About the only thing missing from Mucho Macho Man’s résumé is a Grade 1 victory. He can take care of that while continuing to build a case to be considered for champion older male when he takes on six rivals in Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga.

The Woodward, run at 1 1/8 miles, tops a 12-race, near-six-hour extravaganza here Saturday that includes the Grade 1 Forego for male sprinters and the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap for males on the turf.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Kid Kate may not be coming into Friday’s $100,000 Big Bambu in the best form of her career, but with four victories in as many starts at Saratoga, she figures to be among the favorites in the 6 1/2-furlong overnight stakes for fillies and mares.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Dayatthespa will be more than just a hunch play for those who attend Friday’s “Party at the Park” card at Saratoga.

Dayatthespa, a multiple-graded stakes-winning New York-bred filly, looks to restart what had been a promising 3-year-old campaign when she takes on a full field in the $100,000 Riskaverse, a one-mile turf race and the featured event on a Friday card that begins at 2:30 p.m. Eastern.

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

STANTON, Delaware – Jockey Victor Rodriguez, who has 16 winners at the current Delaware Park meeting to rank second among local apprentice jockeys, was suspended by the stewards for the remainder of the meeting, which ends on Nov. 3. Rodriguez was supended for incidents that occured in the second and fourth races last Saturday.

Falling Knife proved his marathon bona fides again by winning Sunday’s 1 5/8-mile C.J. Hindley Humboldt County Marathon on closing day in Ferndale. Trainer Billy Morey now has another marathon in his sights for the 6-year-old Cozzene gelding, who was second in the 1 1/2-mile Grade 3 Turfway Park Fall Championship in 2010 and won a 2 1/4-mile race as Ellis Park last year.

Morey said he is considering running Falling Knife in a 1 3/8-mile starter allowance at Fairplex on Sept. 28. Falling Knife can also handle the turf, so Morey has options available to him.