After trying to keep up with Commander in the Journal and Spangled Jimmy, Salt Flat Speed is going to appreciate the class relief when he runs in a $30,000 claiming race that will serve as Friday’s feature at Northlands Park. The six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up drew six horses and goes as the eighth race.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Stakes-placed Courtville fits nicely in Friday’s Woodbine headliner, a nonwinners-of-three allowance worth $56,000. He should be favored in the 6 1/2-furlong sprint, which has lured seven other Ontario-sired runners, including Marked in Stone and Bear’s Peak.

Courtville showed promise last year at 2, when he graduated second time out after losing his debut by disqualification. He went on to finish fourth in both the Bull Page and Frost King, two Ontario-sired stakes, before getting the winter off.

Perhaps the most exciting part for Brian Hernandez Jr. is not what happened Saturday, when the racing world was watching as he won the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga aboard Fort Larned. Nor has it been the hundreds of congratulatory phone calls, texts, tweets, and way-to-gos as he made his morning rounds upon his return to Churchill Downs.

Although, as Hernandez said Wednesday morning, “It’s all sinking in now, and it’s been pretty unbelievable.”

For the first time in seven years, the Jockey Club Gold Cup will be worth $1 million when the historic race for 3-year-olds and up is run at Belmont Park on Sept. 29.

Not only has the Kentucky Cup series been abandoned again at Turfway Park, but there won’t even be one stakes race during the 16-day fall meet at the Florence, Ky., track.

DEL MAR, Calif. - The California Horse Racing Board has released a statement backing the decisions of track veterinarian Dr. Dana Stead in the handling of Elivette, who is the subject of a disputed claim after being euthanized following a race on Saturday.

Elivette suffered a fractured sesamoid bone and was euthanized after leaving the track. Under a newly enacted racing board rule, that meant that a claim on her by owner Demitrius Xanthos went through, but had Elivette been euthanized on the track, the claim would have been voided.

AUBURN, Wash. – A total of 26 horses were named as possible starters in the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile when nominations closed Sunday, and while there are several pretenders on the list, the final field on Aug. 19 could be the deepest and most competitive in the 77-year history of the Northwest’s richest race.

Awesome Gem, who captured the Longacres Mile in 2011 and with nearly $2.9 million in career earnings is the richest horse in training in North America, will return to Emerald Downs to defend his title, trainer Craig Dollase said.

Trainer Adolfo Exposito has been suspended one year and fined $1,000 after being charged with aggravated menacing and simple assault for an incident in which he allegedly attacked jockey Hector Rosario Jr. in the parking lot at Thistledown in suburban Cleveland.

Steve Zaper, interim chief investigator for the Ohio State Racing Commission, said Tuesday that Exposito is facing criminal charges in Bedford, Ohio, with a pre-trial hearing set for Aug. 30. Zaper said Exposito is alleged to have struck Rosario with his fist and threatened him with a gun.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Jim Cassidy and owner Norman Cheng have thought so highly of Brother Francis that they put him in several stakes races as a maiden, and he rewarded their confidence last fall with a second-place finish in the Hollywood Prevue and a third in the CashCall Futurity.

But after a fifth-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby, Brother Francis was given a break from racing, and when he returned on Sunday, he could not have looked any better, smoking maidens by six lengths in 1:15.29, the fastest 6 1/2 furlongs of the meet on Polytrack.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Bill Knauf, assistant vice president of Monmouth Park, calls the four upcoming Thursday twilight cards “an experiment” by a new management group willing to try different things.

“We’re going to see if we can draw a crowd that will come out later and stick around afterward with live music and drink specials at the Lady’s Secret Café,” Knauf said.

The seven-race card starts at 4 p.m. Eastern with the last post slated for 6:46 p.m. The $44,000 feature of the initial twilight card is a second-level $32,000 turf sprint where Wicked Tune looks tough.