El Commodore, narrowly beaten in a pair of Grade 3 stakes this season, will look to gain his elusive first stakes victory in Saturday’s $125,000 Japan Racing Association at Laurel Park.

The 1 1/16-mile Japan Racing Association is one of four races scheduled for turf on an 11-race card and attracted a field of 11 older horses.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – An honest pace could help Stormy Bob when he runs in a $15,000 claiming race for 3-year-olds at Hastings Saturday. The 1 1/16-mile race drew nine horses and appears to be a wide-open event.

Post time for the first of nine races is 1:50 p.m. Pacific. Hastings will be giving away Mario Gutierrez bobblehead dolls to the first 1,000 people that purchase a program. Gutierrez, who achieved fame when he won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness aboard I’ll Have Another, rides three horses on the card.

A small but distinguished cast of older horses will race 1 3/16 miles in Saturday’s $50,000 Carl Hanford Memorial Stakes at Delaware Park.

Just five runners are entered, but the group includes Win Willy, winner of the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap in 2011; Eldaafer, champion of the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Marathon; and Not Abroad, the runner-up by a half-length in the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup, a Win and You’re In event for this fall’s BC Marathon.

BOSSIER CITY, La. – Gantry’s road to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint will include a stop at Louisiana Downs on Saturday. He is part a five-horse field for the $50,000 Temperence Hill, the first of five undercard stakes supporting the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby.

Less than a week after a fellow New Mexico track announced plans to rule off any trainer who has a horse test positive for a major drug, Zia Park in Hobbs will open its meet on Saturday with a new “code of conduct” in place. Penn National Gaming, which owns Zia, has issued the policy as part of a horsemen’s guide being used at all of its 11 racing facilities in North America.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Barring any last-minute changes, the European contingent should check in during the wee hours of Sunday morning for the Woodbine Mile, Northern Dancer, and Canadian.

The Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, Grade 1 Northern Dancer, and Grade 2 Canadian all are turf races scheduled here at Woodbine for Sept. 16 and will be joined for the first time by the Ontario Derby, a 1 1/8-mile Polytrack race for 3-year-olds.

The probable overseas invaders for the $1 million Woodbine Mile are Dance and Dance, Cityscape, and Worthadd.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar appropriately turned its 75th anniversary meeting into one giant diamond jubilee. Track officials announced a significant increase in handle for the 37-day meeting, which ended Wednesday and which will result in a retroactive purse increase to an estimated $687,755 per day, a Del Mar record.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Putting a final flourish on what had been a terrific meeting for both, trainer Bob Baffert won a record 11th Del Mar Futurity, and Rafael Bejarano set a single-season record for stakes wins by a jockey with 13, when Rolling Fog scored a mild surprise in the Grade 1, $250,000 Futurity on closing day Wednesday at Del Mar.

Rolling Fog ($16.60) raced just outside the early pacesetter, Caballo Del Cielo, for the first half-mile of the seven-furlong race, surged to the front at the top of the stretch, and held off 8-5 favorite Know More to win by 1 1/4 lengths.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Reneesgotzip rocketed to the front, never looked back, and just missed the six-furlong track record with a dazzling, 3 1/4-length victory in the $89,000 CERF Stakes for older female sprinters on Wednesday at Del Mar.

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

Jazzy Idea, returning to turf after chasing Grade 1 sprinters on the main track in each of her last two starts, drew clear to a three-length victory in Wednesday’s opening-day feature at Laurel Park, the $100,000 Jameela Stakes for Maryland-bred fillies and mares.

In winning the six-furlong race, the 3-year-old Jazzy Idea ($4.20) set a course record by completing the distance on firm turf in 1:07.45. Colony Club finished second, a neck in front of Queen Chatanika.