ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Aug. 6 Shepperton Stakes was bittersweet for owner/trainer Paul Buttigieg. He won it with his rising star Royal Egbert, but his big horse, Gypsy Ring, suffered a suspensory injury in the Ontario-sired stakes and might never race again. Royal Egbert will be back in action Saturday at Woodbine in the $125,000 Overskate Stakes, a seven-furlong sprint for Ontario-sired runners.

The veterinarian comes under the Ian Wilkes shed row and starts the conversation this way: “Mate, that filly ...”

Wilkes is “mate,” just as Dr. Rick Fischer – or you or the next guy – is “mate” to Wilkes. It’s an Australian catch-all, a mostly endearing term of familiarity. Wilkes, 47, has become nearly everyone’s “mate” on the backside of Churchill Downs and the other racetracks he habituates. It’s a very good thing.

Apprentice jockey Dylan Davis helped grow his family’s racing legacy Wednesday when the son of longtime top jockey Robbie Davis and the younger brother of Jackie Davis, who is among the leaders in the Suffolk Downs riding colony, won the first race of his career.

Davis, 18, rallied Soldier Sam, his 26th career mount, from last in the 11-horse, seventh-race field to a flying 1 1/2-length win. The youngest of six children, Davis is a graduate of Saratoga Springs High in New York and the North American Racing Academy run by Dorchester’s own Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron.

Kentucky Downs, the turf-only track in south-central Kentucky, ended its abbreviated meet Wednesday with major gains in handle from last year, thanks largely to more races and to purses enhanced by revenues from Instant Racing machines.

Gross all-sources handle of $7,570,730 was more than double the $3.75 million wagered during a four-day 2011 meet, while average daily handle of $1,514,146 was up 61 percent. The average ontrack handle of $550,757 was up 40 percent.

POMONA, Calif. – Jockey Edwin Maldonado won four races – including the $50,000 Governor’s Cup Handicap – on Wednesday evening at Fairplex Park, where Maldonado is trying to dethrone Martin Pedroza as leading rider at the Los Angeles County Fair.

With four victories on the twilight card, including Close to the Edge ($13.40) in the Governor’s Cup, Maldonado has 18 wins, four more than Pedroza, who had one winner. Pedroza has won the Fairplex riding title 13 straight years.

ELMONT, N.Y. – A pair of allowance races scheduled for the turf – one short and one long – are the co-features on Belmont Park’s nine-race card Friday.

The eighth is a $77,000, second-level allowance going seven furlongs and looks like a good spot for Sylvestris and trainer Robert Barbara to end droughts.

Sylvestris won a first-level allowance race going seven furlongs here May 11. She has lost her last four starts. Barbara has gone 0 for 45 since Adjournment won a race at Belmont on May 18.

ELMONT, N.Y. – To say trainer Wesley Ward is looking forward to running Judy the Beauty in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Gallant Bloom Handicap at Belmont Park would be an understatement.

“I’m so excited to run her my toes are wiggling,” Ward said Wednesday by phone from Keeneland.

Judy the Beauty, beaten a nose by Emma’s Encore in the Grade 1 Prioress at Saratoga on Aug. 4, was one of 10 fillies and mares entered for the Gallant Bloom, a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.

MIAMI – Trainer Rodolfo Garcia could have opted to keep his Grade 2-placed Salamera home for what would have been a much-anticipated matchup with the undefeated and untested Rose to Gold in last Saturday’s Brave Raj Stakes. Instead, Garcia decided to skip that spot to ship Salamera to Santa Anita for the Grade 1 Chandelier a week from Saturday.

AUBURN, Wash. – Juan Gutierrez, assured of his first Emerald Downs riding title, will commence his victory lap Friday on Day 79 of the 81-day meeting. Gutierrez enters the final weekend with a 110-91 cushion over defending champion Leslie Mawing, with the other jockeys many lengths behind. Gutierrez has mounts in every race on the seven-race card, including leading contender Reliable Ema in the feature race, a $7,500 claimer for 3-year-old fillies that have never won twice.

There will be two key factors working in Z Rockstar’s favor on Friday night when he seeks the first stakes win of his career in the $50,000 Tishomingo at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.

The race shares a card with the $50,000 Te Ata, both at seven furlongs and both restricted to 3-year-olds bred in Oklahoma. The names of the races relate to the Chickasaw Nation, which through its subsidiary of Global Gaming owns Remington Park.