SHAKOPEE, Minn – Seven 3-year-old fillies will take to the track Wednesday to contest the $75,000 Northbound Pride Oaks at one mile over the turf.

ELMONT, N.Y. – They say good things come in threes, so Christophe Clement’s bandwagon will be overflowing when he sends out Right One in the Grade 3, $150,000 Poker Stakes, the featured event on a 10-race Fourth of July program.

Clement has captured the last two graded turf stakes here, with Summer Front in the Hill Prince on June 16 and Mystical Star in last Saturday’s New York, and leads all trainers with 17 grass victories at the meet.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Retired jockey Patti Cooksey will make her debut as a steward with the start of the 29-day Ellis Park meet on Wednesday in Henderson, Ky.

Cooksey, who has worked in recent years as director of public relations for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, will join Barbara Borden and Butch Becraft in the Ellis stewards’ stand, making for the first-ever majority of females as stewards at a Kentucky track.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – It took a few moments for the folks in the intensive care unit at USC Medical Center to figure out what all that cheering was about in one of the rooms Saturday afternoon.

Trainer Mike Mitchell, who underwent surgery for a brain tumor early Friday, was resting in his hospital room, with his wife Denise, and adult daughters McCall and Shea visiting. Mitchell may not have been able to attend the race, but no one could take racing out of the man, even a day after a serious operation.

It has been 13 years since Ellis Park had the July 4 holiday all to itself. A decision last year by Churchill Downs officials to concede the date to their western Kentucky brethren figures to get the 29-day Ellis meet off to a solid start, especially in light of how entries for the Wednesday opener went.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – John Johny Jak, vanned off after winning Sunday’s $70,800 Robert Kerlan Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park, was euthanized Sunday evening because of a shoulder injury, trainer Kristin Mulhall said.

John Johny Jak was pulled up about a quarter-mile after the finish and transported to Mulhall’s stable for evaluation. Mulhall said that several veterinarians were consulted in the hours after the race.

“We ended having to put him down,” she said Sunday evening. “It was the hardest thing.”

The Thoroughbred Owners of California directors will host an open forum for horsemen next Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Pleasanton satellite facility at the Alameda County Fair. They will conduct a discussion of current events in the racing industry and answer questions from horsemen.

Graded stakes winner Gladding dominated on the lead as he scored an unchallenged victory in the $51,800 Alamedan Handicap on Sunday at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, Calif.

Gladding ($3.40), who went wire-to-wire in winning the Grade 2 San Antonio last year, broke on top and was never challenged while setting comfortable fractions of 24.31 seconds, 47.58, and 1:10.77 in the 1 1/16-mile race.

He maintained a 1 1/2-length lead down the backstretch and began to open on his early rivals Honour the Deputy and When We Met on the second turn.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dale Romans and Corey Lanerie capped a memorable spring meet at Churchill Downs when teaming Sunday to win the closing-night feature, the Grade 2 Firecracker Handicap, with Guys Reward.

Retired Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner I’ll Have Another will be paraded between races on Saturday at Betfair Hollywood Park.

I’ll Have Another is scheduled to be sent to Japan later this summer for stud duty. Saturday’s ceremony is likely to be his final public appearance before he starts quarantine in advance of being sent to Japan.