When the 3-year-old Top Cat Boogie won his fourth stakes race of the year in the $75,000 Louisiana Cup Derby at Louisiana Downs last Saturday, the win meant so much more to his connections than the first-place check of $45,000.

“His sire died over the winter, and to get a colt like him doing what he’s doing, it’s kind of erasing a little bit of the pain of losing his stallion,” said Alan Klanfer, who trains Top Cat Boogie for the Circle H Farms operation of Don Hargroder.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Although he has won more than $750,000 and multiple graded stakes, Liberian Freighter has not been performing up to the expectations of his Hall of Fame trainer, Neil Drysdale, in his recent races, so he will dip into softer company in Thursday’s featured seventh race at Del Mar, a $73,000 optional claimer at one mile on turf.

Liberian Freighter is entered for the $62,500 claiming price, but considering that he is now age 7 and a gelding, it’s a calculated risk.

Taking a class drop from back-to-back Grade 1 attempts into a second-level allowance would seem the right formula in trying to get a horse back to the winner’s circle. And that’s precisely the path that Sacristy is endeavoring to take for trainer Wayne Catalano.

Still, “it looks like it’s not going to be as easy as I thought,” said Catalano.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y – There’s nothing more frustrating than losing a Grade 1 race by a nose. Except maybe losing a Grade 1 race by a nose with a horse who’d been away from the races nearly 15 months and had just run 2 1/16 miles and jumped nine hurdles only to come up inches short of victory.

Trainer John Gosden’s remarkable run with fillies this summer can continue on Thursday when The Fugue starts as the favorite in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks for fillies and mares at York Racecourse.

Gosden’s wins in Group 1 stakes for fillies and mares this year include the Coronation Stakes with Fallen For You at Royal Ascot in June; the Pretty Polly Stakes with Izzi Top in Ireland in July; and the Prix Rothschild at Deauville France in July with Elusive Kate.

Horseman Frank Amonte has sued Suffolk Downs alleging age discrimination after the Boston-area track refused to allow him to ride in races this season.

Amonte, 76, owns and trains horses and won races as a jockey for six decades, most recently in 2005 at the Northampton Fair, which made him the oldest rider to ever win a race at a Thoroughbred track. He’s been unsuccessful since then in a quest to be the only person to win a race in his 70’s, losing 88 races while finishing in the money 12 times.

DEL MAR, Calif. – At 7, Rail Trip is good enough to have earned a trip to the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita in November. He secured an automatic berth for the Dirt Mile with a win in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar on July 28.

His race plans for that autumn day may be subject to change.

Sunday, Rail Trip starts in the $1 million Pacific Classic, three years after he finished third in the race as the favorite. A win would force owner Samantha Siegel and trainer Ron Ellis to reevaluate plans for the autumn. The Breeders’ Cup Classic would become the new goal.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association has switched horses midstream in deciding to drop a policy in which the association released cumulative handle and attendance figures at the close of racing on Mondays during the seven-week meet.

Trainer Reade Baker confirmed Bear’s Taurus and Speyside for the Grade 3, $200,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park this Saturday.

Bear’s Taurus is coming off a fifth-place finish in a one-mile first-level allowance race on the grass at Woodbine on Aug. 1. Speyside finished second in a first-level race for Ontario-breds going 1 1/4 miles on the turf July 7.

Fernando Perez, second in the jockey standings at Hastings, has secured the mount on Speyside. Quincy Welch, one of the top jockeys in Alberta before he moved to Woodbine last year, is reportedly riding Bear’s Taurus.

Grade 1 winners Emma’s Encore and My Miss Aurelia will not run in Saturday’s Grade 1 Test Stakes.

Trainer Allen Jerkens said Monday that the Test is too close back for Emma’s Encore, who is coming off a nose victory in the Grade 1 Prioress on Aug. 4.

“She had a harder race than you think last time. He had to ask her pretty hard to get up,” Jerkens said. “We hope she’ll be around for a while, and we think this is the best way of enhancing her being around for a while.”