ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Arlington has expanded its purse reduction policy in races that attract short fields beginning this week.

From the start of the meet, 15 percent of a race’s published purse was returned to the purse account if fewer than seven horses came to the paddock for the race, but that policy will now be triggered by a field of fewer than eight starters. For now, at least, Arlington has averted an across-the-board purse cut, something that was recently considered in light of business trends.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.– Duke of Mischief arrived by van from his home base at Calder on Tuesday to begin final preparations for the Grade 1, $750,000 Whitney on Aug. 6 here at Saratoga.

Trainer David Fawkes had been on the fence for the past week regarding Duke of Mischief’s status for the Whitney before finally making the decision over the weekend to run. Duke of Mischief is coming off a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap after having won the $1 million Charles Town Classic earlier this spring.

Trainer Andrew Leggio was traveling from his Bossier City, La., base to Saratoga on Tuesday in order to watch St. John’s River work toward the Grade 1, $500,000 Alabama Stakes. She was scheduled to breeze Wednesday morning under Robby Albarado, who will have the mount in the Aug. 20 race, Leggio said.

St. John’s River won the Grade 2 Delaware Oaks on July 9. It was her first start since May, when she finished second by a neck in the Kentucky Oaks. Leggio said St. John’s River shipped from Delaware to New York on July 16.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – A little more than two weeks out, the Arlington Million is looking like the least compelling of the three Grade 1 turf races on the Aug. 13 Million Day card. That’s not to say the Million is coming up poorly, but both the Beverly D. and Secretariat Stakes have a chance to attract fairly awesome fields.

First Dude, Game On Dude, and Twirling Candy were the first three across the line in the Hollywood Gold Cup on July 9, and they looked like the ones to beat in the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic here Aug. 28, but there’s now room for opportunistic older horses, what with the retirement of First Dude on Monday and the possibility that Twirling Candy could go in a different race.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It took a track-record performance to hand Higher Court his first career defeat last month at Belmont Park. It might take another to beat the speedy 3-year-old again Thursday at Saratoga in the $75,000 Quick Call Stakes carded at 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf.

DEL MAR, Calif. – It’ll happen long after high noon, but there’s going to be an old-fashioned Western shootout Sunday at Del Mar.

Euroears and Smiling Tiger, two of the fastest guns in the West, are set for a compelling sprint showdown in the Grade 1, $250,000 Bing Crosby Stakes, a six-furlong race that also is expected to draw the accomplished stakes winner Amazombie.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Richard Mandella is hoping to have them surrounded in the featured seventh race on Thursday at Del Mar, both in terms of post positions and styles of running.

He’s already halfway there. Chalula One, the late runner of his pair, drew the rail in the one-mile turf race for second-level allowance females. And Mandella is hopeful that the speedy Linda Lou, the first horse on the also-eligible list, will draw into the $70,000 race.

Members of the Saratoga riding colony will take on a group of horsemen in a charity basketball game Wednesday at the Saratoga Recreation Center, with proceeds going to benefit the New York Racetrack Chaplaincy.

Tipoff is 7 p.m. and tickets cost $15. The recreation center is located at 15 Vanderbilt Ave.

On Sunday, trainer Scooter Dickey confirmed that Flat Out, runaway winner of the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap earlier this month, would return in the Grade 1 Whitney. On Monday, Dickey felt even better about that decision after Flat Out worked five furlongs in 59 seconds and galloped out six furlongs in 1:11 under exercise rider Rafael Holgein at Monmouth Park.