Del Mar could have an influx of 100 horses from stables moving to the circuit for the late summer and horses recently acquired by local trainers, according to the track’s director of racing, Tom Robbins.

Robbins said on Thursday that he has received stall applications from Texas trainers Cash Asmussen and Dallas Keen; Vann Belvoir from Washington, Troy Taylor from British Columbia; and Robertino Diodoro, Dan McFarlane, and Kory Owens, who have raced in California this year but were not at Del Mar last summer.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Sunday marks the halfway point of the 2011 meet, and there isn’t much doubt that Troy Taylor is going to win his fifth straight training title. Going into the weekend, Taylor had 26 wins, 12 more than Terry Clyde and Elizabeth Stolzenberg who are tied for second.

Taylor will be the trainer of record at Hastings for the rest of the meet, but he will be overseeing his stable from Del Mar where he has been given 12 stalls.

“We applied for 10, but they gave us 12 because they figured we were going to claim a few,” Taylor said.

ELMONT, N.Y. – After Defy Gravity rolled to a six-length maiden win in her second career start at Pimlico on May 8, the offers began rolling in to owner Roland Reeley. He was on the verge of selling her to Kentucky interests when he changed his mind, much to the relief of trainer Valora Testerman.

“My owner said. ‘All I would do is buy another horse and hope they were her,’" Testerman said. “I was really excited. She is that kind of horse.”

By “that kind” Testerman means the kind good enough to win stakes, something she will try to do in Sunday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Matron.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After Strike Impact dominated a May 5 turf allowance at Churchill Downs, his trainer, Pat Dupuy, started kidding some of his more well-known colleagues when enjoying a post-race beverage at a ground-floor clubhouse bar.

“I’ll be giving seminars on how to train a racehorse on Saturday mornings,” he gleefully announced.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. – As of 12:01  a.m. Friday morning, state services in Minnesota were shut down forcing the cancellation of Friday’s card at Canterbury Park. The status of Sunday’s card was uncertain as of Friday afternoon but the scheduled feature races are the $50,000 Blair’s Cove and $35,000 Shot of Gold.

MIAMI – Once upon a time, invaders dominated Calder’s premier event, the Summit of Speed, as locals continuously watched the big money leave town year in and year out since the inception of the popular series in 2000.

ELMONT, N.Y. – The late decision to run Tarpy’s Goal in Sunday’s Grade 2 Futurity at Belmont Park rather than Saturday’s Grade 3 Bashford Manor at Churchill Downs came down to simple mathematics, according to trainer Dale Romans.

“The race here is $100,000, Grade 3 with 11 horses where he’s going to be 8-1, 10-1,” Romans said Friday morning from Churchill Downs. “The race there is $150,000, Grade 2 with six horses where he’s going to be 3-1, that’s a pretty easy decision. It’s all about the math.”

AUBURN, Wash. − While he’s no threat to win the Emerald Downs training title – at least not this year – Jonathan Nance is having a terrific meeting. Entering this week, 30 of his 46 starters had finished first, second, or third, an in-the-money rate of 65 percent. Jerry Hollendorfer would be proud.

Nance is pleased, too. “It’s going better than I thought it would go,” Nance said Thursday. “The horses seem to be running pretty good. I’m pretty happy about the percentages. The track has been really good. As long as I can keep them sound, I think I’ll keep doing well.”

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Flashpoint should be back on his game Sunday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Jersey Shore Stakes for 3-year-olds at Monmouth Park.

The winner of the seven-furlong Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park with a dazzling 102 Beyer Speed Figure, Flashpoint will have usual pilot Cornelio Velasquez aboard.

He took an ambitious swing last time, setting the early pace in the Preakness before fading to last.

The gray colt has been training lights out since then at Aqueduct for Wesley Ward, and should love the distance cut back to six furlongs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The richest event Sunday at Churchill Downs is a mere first-level, $62,100 allowance, but that hardly qualifies as bad news. More worthy of note is all the large fields on a 12-race card, perhaps a sign that horsemen are eager to get in one more Churchill start before scattering to their different summer venues.