SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It has taken longer than hoped for Flat Out and Tizway to reach their potential. With each one coming off a lifetime-best performance in a graded stakes race, it raises the question, can they improve even more?

If so, Saturday’s $750,000 Whitney Invitational Handicap – which on paper seems as wide open a Grade 1 as you will ever see – could boil down to a two-horse race. If not, then almost any of the remaining nine horses could win it.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Divine Fortune, away from the races for 49 weeks, took over from Decoy Daddy with 50 yards to go and drew clear to win Thursday’s $75,000 A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase by two lengths at Saratoga.

Decoy Daddy, who set the early pace before conceding the lead to Slip Away after the third fence, came back to finish second by 3 1/4 lengths over Nationbuilder, also trained by Sheppard. Slip Away and Dyanski completed the order of finish. Spy in the Sky did not finish the course.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Breeders’ Stakes, the third leg of the Canadian triple crown, is contested over 1 1/2 miles on turf, circumstances foreign to Canadian-bred 3-year-olds here at this stage of their careers.

That fact, plus the $500,000 purse, once again has proved to be an effective lure as a field of 14 was entered Sunday for the Breeders’, surpassing the 13-horse fields of the past two seasons.

After poaching the Rise Jim Stakes three weeks ago, Sultan’s Prince appears poised to live up to the lofty standards of his blue-blooded Massachusetts-bred family in Saturday’s $50,000 Last Dance Stakes at Suffolk Downs.

The statebred stakes program was supposed to be more competitive this year thanks to key retirements, but when Sultan’s Prince rushed past Same Day Pleasure in the middle of the track last month, it had to leave many connections wondering what just hit them.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. − For a good five-year stretch beginning in 1996, there weren’t many important races run in New York − or most anyplace else − that didn’t include a James Bond-trained horse. Most of the time, the horse was owned in a partnership that included owner William Clifton Jr.

The first of three scheduled flights from Europe carrying hopefuls for the International Festival of Racing at Arlington Park was scheduled to arrive Saturday evening at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.

Wigmore Hall and Zack Hall, both set to run in the 29th Arlington Million next Saturday, Aug. 13, were among the horses booked for the Saturday flight. The Million is the biggest of the three Grade 1 turf races that comprise the Festival.

Ain’t No Other could have an advantage as eight sprinters compete in the $50,000-added Jess Jackson Owners Handicap at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa on Saturday.

The five-furlong turf stakes, run as the 10th race, is different than most stakes because owners and trainers name their horses’s weight for the race – which is the lowest weight their rider could make.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Court of the Realm takes a five-race win streak into Saturday’s $150,000 Seagram Cup Stakes at Woodbine, and will run on Lasix for the first time in the competitive 1 1/16-mile route.

Court of the Realm, a late-developing 4-year-old trained by Peter Berringer, hasn’t looked back since he graduated on the Polytrack last September. He cleared the first two allowance conditions easily in the fall, going 1 1/16 miles and seven furlongs, before getting the winter off.

Trainer Jim Meyaard isn’t sure if he is going to run Salt Flat Speed in the $50,000 Westerner at Northlands Park Saturday or leave him in the $40,000 optional claiming race he is entered on Friday night. Meyaard is positive, however, that his other Westerner entrant, Professor Pollard, is ready to run a big race in the 1 1/16-mile stakes, and he should be favored in the six-horse field.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Rallying Cry looks like the one to beat in a $7,500 claiming race that will serve as Saturday’s feature at Hastings. The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up drew seven horses and goes as race 6 on the seven-race card that starts at 1:50 p.m. Pacific.

Rallying Cry comes out of the very hot Elizabeth Stolzenberg’s barn. From 46 starters at Hastings Stolzenberg has compiled a 20-7-8 record, which equates to a 43 percent win rate. In her only start away from Hastings, Stolzenberg won the $50,000 Wild Rose at Northlands Park with Classic Alley Kat.