DEL MAR, Calif. – Rail Trip is more than two years removed from his last stakes win, the Grade 2 Californian Stakes at Hollywood Park. Nearly three years have gone by since his only start on the Del Mar Polytrack surface, a game third in the 2009 Pacific Classic.

Those two facts make his appearance in Saturday’s $200,000 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar all the more intriguing. A 7-year-old with two losses earlier this year, Rail Trip has a chance to prove he is back to his best, the form that led to a win in the 2009 Hollywood Gold Cup.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Willa B Awesome is a filly who thrives on activity.

In five starts since late January, she has won three stakes, including the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks on March 31. The timing of races is a key element to that success. On June 23, she was sixth in the Grade 2 Hollywood Oaks, her worst performance of the year. The race came after an eight-week break that was too long, trainer Walther Solis said.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Trainer Graham Motion shipped Howe Great to Monmouth Park from his base at Maryland’s Fair Hills training center to capture the Jersey Derby last weekend as the 3-10 favorite. Motion will try to also take the companion event for fillies on Saturday with Proud Pearl in the $60,000 Desert Vixen for 3-year-olds on the turf.

The price figures to be much higher in this wide-open 1 1/16-mile race, which lacks a standout graded runner like Howe Great.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario − Coming off a 5 1/2-length win in the Clarendon on June 30, Uncaptured looms as the one to beat in Saturday’s $150,000 Vandal Stakes at Woodbine.

A six-furlong race for Ontario-foaled 2-year-olds, the Vandal attracted a field of six, and Uncaptured is one of three from the barn of trainer Mark Casse, along with Calgary Cat and Dynamic Strike.

Uncaptured and Calgary Cat are owned by John Oxley. Casse said only one would start and that Calgary Cat is in more as a backup.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Man Stuff drops in class off a victory over older opposition Saturday, when she will meet 3-year-old fillies over seven furlongs in the $150,000 Duchess Stakes at Woodbine.

If Paynter is deemed the horse to beat in Sunday’s Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park, then Javier Castellano, the rider of likely second choice Gemologist won’t have to work hard to find him.

Gemologist, the Wood Memorial winner, drew post 4, one slot to the outside of Paynter, the Belmont Stakes runner-up, when entries were made and post positions drawn on Thursday for Sunday’s Haskell, the marquee event of the Monmouth meet. The Haskell will go as race 13 on a 14-race program that begins at noon. Post time for the Haskell is 6:17 p.m.

When trainer Bob Hess looked through the Sonoma County Fair condition book, he scanned the claiming-race opportunities on the turf for Cal Bayers. Then something happened to make him revise his plans and enter her in Saturday’s $50,000 Jack Demeo Horseman of the Year Stakes: A horse Cal Bayers beat in her last start came back to win at Del Mar.

ALTOONA, Iowa – Saturday night’s $100,000 Prairie Meadows Handicap, a 1 1/4-mile stamina test for older horses, drew a difficult-to-separate field of five headed by 2010 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap champion Shadowbdancing.

You, too, thought Ben’s Cat was on the other side of midnight? Well, not so fast.

“He came back from those two supbar races and probably ran the best race of his life,” King Leatherbury, the breeder-owner-trainer of Ben’s Cat, said in reference to a two-length victory last month as a 10-1 shot in the $150,000 Parx Dash in Philadelphia. “I think he got a zero on the Thoro-Graph Sheets.”

MIAMI – Eddie Plesa Jr. and Kathleen O’Connell have dominated the 2-year-old racing at Calder this summer, so it’s appropriate that they will send out the two top contenders, Dixie High and Two T’s At Two B, in Saturday’s $75,000 Dr. Fager Stakes. The six-furlong Dr. Fager and its filly counterpart, the $75,000 Desert Vixen, once again kick off the Florida Stallion Stakes, a three-race series for Florida-bred 2-year-olds offering total purses estimated at $1 million.