Joyful Victory, the multiple-stakes-winning 3-year-old filly who finished fourth as the favorite in the Kentucky Oaks, underwent knee surgery Friday at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Kentucky to remove a chip out of a knee, trainer Larry Jones said.

Jones said he believes Joyful Victory came out of her last-place finish in the Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga with the injury. Jones said that Joyful Victory could return to his barn in September, but that she would not run again until next year.

Santa Anita reopened its main track for full training on Thursday after limiting activity to joggers and gallopers on Tuesday and Wednesday. The track underwent a two-week project to reduce clay content and add sand, which began on July 11.

There were eight recorded works on the main track on Thursday, and 23 on Friday, including several trained by Bob Baffert. His stable at Santa Anita is directed by assistant Mike Marlow.

“I’ve heard nothing but high praises for it,” Baffert said of the track. “Mike said it’s really good.”

Trainer Ken McPeek’s stable is primed for a big week of stakes action here at Saratoga, beginning with Scotus’s attempt to join the elite of the 3-year-old division in Saturday’s Jim Dandy. McPeek will also be represented in Grade 1 events next weekend by Noble’s Promise in the Vanderbilt, Salty Strike in the Test, and perhaps Gautier in the Whitney. He’s also planning to run Dark Cove in Friday’s John’s Call overnight stakes with an eye on the Grade 1 Sword Dancer later in the session.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – To Honor and Serve, knocked off the Triple Crown trail in the spring due to injury, returns to the races Monday at Saratoga in the Grade 2, $150,000 Amsterdam Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs.

The Amsterdam, this track’s traditional prep for the Grade 1 King’s Bishop on Aug. 27, drew a solid field of seven, including stakes winners Justin Phillip, Travelin Man, Caleb’s Posse, and Arch Traveler as well as non-stakes winners Redeemed and Wine Police.

FORT ERIE, Ontario – Kirk Johnson, 36, has been proving to himself, trainers, and owners at Fort Erie, that he has the talent and the ability to win races. Johnson is currently second in the jockey standings at the Fort with 30 wins, one back of the leading Chris Griffith.

His agent, Kevin Buttigieg, is very pleased with Johnson’s year to date.

“He is a tireless worker and that makes my job much easier,” said Buttigieg, “not only by his winning races, but also by his morning work ethic where he arrives early, finishes late, and never complains.”

AUBURN, Wash. – Newfound Man, a stakes winner in 2010, and He’s All Heart, a game winner in his last start, headline the feature race Sunday at Emerald Downs. A first-level optional $32,000 claimer, it’s the ninth race on a 10-race card that kicks off with a 300-yard Quarter Horse dash at 2 p.m. Pacific.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Figuring two horses can travel as easily as one, trainer Dale Romans decided to have C.S. Silk accompany Shackleford on the van ride from Churchill Downs to Monmouth Park. Shackleford, the Preakness winner, is headed to the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Sunday. C.S. Silk will be on the undercard in the Grade 3, $200,000 Matchmaker Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf.

A 5-year-old, C.S. Silk ran the race of her life most recently, a front-running victory over a course labeled good in the Grade 1 Just a Game at Belmont Park.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Larry Jones pulled into the Saratoga stable area here early Thursday morning with two older fillies in tow, both of whom will run in Sunday’s Grade 1 Ruffian Invitational Handicap. No, one of them wasn’t Havre de Grace.

In fact, only one of the two belonged to Jones, that being Payton d’Oro, who looks to step out from the shadow of her stablemate Havre de Grace in the $250,000 Ruffian, a 1 1/8-mile race that shares billing Sunday with the Grade 2, $150,000 Fourstardave Handicap on turf for older males.

Sunday’s $1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park could either provide some clarity to the 3-year-old division or create more chaos. If form holds, bet on the latter.

A Haskell victory by either Preakness winner Shackleford or Belmont Stakes champion Ruler On Ice would give that horse the unquestioned lead in a division that has lacked a clear leader for most of the year. Should one of the other six horses entered in the 1 1/8-mile race prevail, however, then the division will remain in turmoil.

The Illinois Racing Board extended a deadline for the state’s racetracks to file their dates requests for 2012 until Monday, racing board officials said on Friday.

The requests were due on Friday, but the extension was granted after one of the state’s tracks declined to waive a hearing right guaranteed under state law, according to Marc Laino, the board’s executive director.