Del Mar will offer 43 stakes worth $7.75 million at its summer meeting, which runs from July 18 to Sept. 5, including two new stakes for 2-year-olds on turf and one race renamed to reflect a closer relationship between the racetrack and the Oak Tree Racing Association.

Oak Tree ran a fall meeting at Santa Anita from 1969 to 2009 and at Hollywood Park in 2010. The track did not run a meeting in 2011 and will not do so this year, but is forging closer ties with Del Mar and Hollywood Park, according to Oak Tree’s executive vice-president Sherwood Chillingworth.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Somali Lemonade made one of the most eye-catching stretch runs you’ll ever see in winning the Jessamine Stakes over the Keeneland turf course last fall. Her rally was far less effective when she finished sixth in her only subsequent start, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, but trainer Michael Matz chalks that up to racing luck.

ARCADIA, Calif.– When Derive was claimed for $32,000 by owner Rick Wiest and trainer Robertino Diodoro, they thought he could become a stakes winner.

Their prediction was correct. Their latitude was way off. Derive was winless in three starts at Northlands Park in Edmonton last summer.

Switched to Turf Paradise in Arizona last fall, Derive reeled off six consecutive wins, including three stakes.

Having had a few days to reflect on becoming the first person to win 1,000 races at Lone Star Park when Primal Jones won Saturday’s second race there, trainer Steve Asmussen didn’t quite know what to make of it.

“I didn’t know they were open that long, or that I’m this old,” he quipped.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Coolmore Lexington Stakes might produce a starter for the Kentucky Derby after all. Bob Baffert has decided to run Castaway in the Grade 3, $200,000 Lexington on Saturday at Keeneland, and a victory would give the colt enough graded earnings to run back in the Derby if his connections so wished.

Bold Chieftain and Lady Railrider, perhaps Northern California’s top older male and female runners over the past few years, were retired this year to begin their breeding careers. Both are doing well, say farm personnel.

Lady Railrider was bred to Lucky Pulpit at Harris Farms, and Dave McGlothlin, who manages the farm, reports that she is healthy and in foal.

The year’s second two-furlong race for 2-year-olds at Golden Gate is scheduled for Thursday.Two fillies who ran behind Case Cracker in her track-record two-furlong win in the first such race of the meeting are back on Thursday: Egyptian Femme, who ran fifth, and Mysweetguarani, a distant sixth. Thursday’s race, which is for fillies, has four first-timers, including Smackable, a stablemate of Egyptian Femme.

Trainer Craig Dollase got exactly what he wanted when he sent his multi-millionaire Awesome Gem to Golden Gate Fields for his 9-year-old debut last week. Awesome Gem won the one-mile allowance race, which was switched from turf to Tapeta, and came out of the race in good shape.

“He doesn’t know he’s 9,” said Dollase after Awesome Gem’s half-length victory last Tursday over pacesetter Positive Response. “It was a nice comeback.”

A partnership that is building two casinos in Ohio has purchased an additional 40 percent stake in Turfway Park, bringing its total stake in the northern Kentucky track to 90 percent.

Rock Ohio Ventures, a partnership that includes Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, purchased the 40 percent stake for $6.2 million from Keeneland, which will retain a 10 percent share of the track. The stake purchased by Rock Ohio will be merged with a 50 percent stake in Turfway already owned by Rock Ohio Caesars, which is co-developing the two Ohio casinos with Rock Ohio Ventures.

Jockey Akifumi Kato notched career Thoroughbred winner 2,000 at Turf Paradise Monday when he guided She’s a Hit ($6) to capture the day’s eighth race. The 3-year-old filly, owned by Arrowhead Racing and trained by Kaylyn Kato, sat midpack in the about 7 1/2-furlong turf event, a $30,000 maiden claimer, began to advance on the far turn, swung very wide into the lane and kept on resolutely to get up in the final strides as the 2-1 favorite.