ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Trainer Wayne Catalano is thinking Keeneland-Breeders’ Cup for Arlington-Washington Futurity winner Major Gain, but maybe not in the way that others are thinking.

Rather than aim Major Gain for the Breeders’ Futurity on Polytrack and then the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on dirt, Catalano and Major Gain’s owners, Gary and Mary West, are considering the colt for the $100,000 Bourbon Stakes, a turf race Oct. 10 at Keeneland. That could lead to a start in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, if Major Gain takes to the track.

The Southwest region could contribute two starters on significant win streaks to next month’s Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady at Keeneland. Wasted Tears, a winner of her last seven starts, is training toward the Oct. 9 race, while Category Seven, who picked up her fifth straight win last month, is being seriously considered for a start in the First Lady.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Belmont has gone retro for the first Thursday at the fall meet, with a solid card that includes four filly-and-mare allowance races, a $35,000 claiming sprint open to all comers (remember those?), a couple of one-mile maiden specials for 2-year-olds, and an all-turf late pick four that is actually de rigueur these days: Should Mother Nature cooperate, this would be the 20th one of the season in New York.

Jockey Michael Martinez, whose spinal cord was severed in a horrific racing spill Sunday at Golden Gate Fields, could be a candidate for implantation of embryonic stem cells in hopes of mending the spinal cord.

The 24-year-old rider’s life hung in the balance Monday when bleeding in his brain began at a high rate before being stabilized by Monday afternoon. His condition at Highland Hospital in Oakland, Calif., remained critical but stable on Tuesday.

POMONA, Calif. – The front-runner Sugar Spike is expected to start favored Thursday in the race-10 feature at Fairplex Park, a first-level allowance/optional $40,000 claimer for California-bred filly-mare sprinters in which Sugar Spike is the controlling speed.

The 6 1/2-furlong distance, however, presents a major challenge for Sugar Spike, whose lead diminished in both career wins at six furlongs. In two tries at 6 1/2, she finished out of the money.

Trainer Richard Mandella had some initial misgivings about sending Acaffella north to run in the Angel Island Stakes given the presence of undefeated Luckarack, a two-time stakes winner in the field.

Luckarack’s trainer, Steve Specht, experienced a similar feeling when he watched jockey Russell Baze gallop Acaffella in a prerace leg-stretcher Friday morning.

Specht’s misgivings were better placed than Mandella’s after Acaffella made an explosive move into the lane and pulled away to win the 1 1/16-mile Angel Island by six lengths.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. has been down the Woodbine Mile road on three previous occasions, including second-place finishes with the late Kip Deville in 2007 and with Rebel Rebel in 2006.

On Sunday, Dutrow will have another solid shot at the top prize in the Grade 1, $1 million turf race for 3-year-olds and up when he sends out Court Vision for the IAEH Stable and Resolute Group Stable.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Neil Drysdale still is the king of the Woodbine Mile, with three victories from 10 entrants in nine runnings.

But Drysdale’s participation in Sunday’s renewal of the Grade 1, $1 million race for 3-year-olds and up is not cast in stone, even though his candidate, Riviera Cocktail, has been on the grounds since last Friday.

“He didn’t travel very well,” Drysdale said when reached by telephone at the Keeneland sales.

“That’s why we sent him ahead of time, because we were concerned about it. We’ll see how he picks up.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Heart of a King brings the highest last-out Beyer Speed Figure to Thursday’s Woodbine headliner and should be an effective stalker in the second-level optional claiming sprint.

Heart of a King has a new trainer for this engagement, Amber Mayers, who is subbing for the suspended Michael Pino. Heart of a King captured 4 of 8 starts last year, including the $99,000 Tall Ships Stakes on the Tapeta surface at Presque Isle Downs.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Position Limit, the leader of the 2-year-old filly division, will miss the remainder of her juvenile campaign after developing chips in her right hind ankle, her connections said.

Position Limit will have the chips surgically removed from her ankle and will convalesce at Jake Pletcher’s farm in Ocala, Fla. Jake Pletcher is the father of Todd Pletcher, who trains Position Limit for the Starlight Partners of Jack and Laurie Wolf and Don and Barbara Lucarelli.