The mare Illeria, a stakes winner during her racing career, produced her first foal way back in 1995. Serenity Jane, the name given that youngster, made three starts, and won none of them. But Illeria’s 1996 model, eventually named Magic Broad, was much more racehorse: Her five career wins included a victory in the Grade 3 Selima Stakes. In 1997, Illeria gave birth to a foal who would be named Include, and for a while in 2001, Include was the best thing out there, scoring sharp back-to-back-to-back victories in the New Orleans Handicap, the Pimlico Special, and the Massachusetts Handicap.

Fair Grounds will put on a meet as quick and powerful as a Quarter Horse Tuesday, when it opens for 10 days of racing for the breed with purses of about $200,000 a card. The season will continue to Sept. 25, and in some ways it serves as a lead-in to the $1.1 million Challenge Championship program.

Fair Grounds, the New Orleans track owned by Churchill Downs Inc., made a successful bid for the American Quarter Horse Racing Association’s traveling championship event and will host it for the first time Nov. 19.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Gio Ponti on Saturday continued preparations for his fall campaign, a campaign that his connections have yet to definitively map out.

In his first work since finishing second in the Arlington Million on Aug. 21, Gio Ponti worked a solid five furlongs in 1:01.72 Saturday morning over Belmont Park’s inner turf course. Following an early afternoon conversation with owner Shane Ryan, trainer Christophe Clement said that it has yet to be determined where Gio Ponti will make his next start.

FRANKLIN, Ky. – A second-level allowance at all-turf Kentucky Downs isn’t supposed to be nearly as tough as a second-level turf allowance at Saratoga. Right?

“You wouldn’t think so,” said trainer Rusty Arnold. “That’s why we’re headed that way, to find out.”

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” wrote Robert Frost in his poem “The Road Not Taken,” but for racing fans, that famous opening line could be altered to read, “Two roads diverged in the Kelly’s Landing Stakes.” The winner of the $65,000 Kelly’s Landing on June 26 at Churchill Downs, Here Comes Ben, took the road leading to Saratoga, where he won the Grade 1 Forego last weekend. Hamazing Destiny, second by a neck to Here Comes Ben, has wound up in the featured second race on Monday at Delaware Park.

Marquis Downs canceled its Friday night program after heavy rainfall left the track completely under water. The Prairie Lily Stakes has been rescheduled for next Saturday, closing day of the meeting.

Blame has reacclimated to his surroundings at Keeneland and remains firmly on target for the Oct. 2 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, trainer Al Stall Jr. said early Saturday from the Lexington, Ky., track.

By the time he departs by plane for New York on Sept. 30, Blame will have had four straight Sunday workouts over the Polytrack surface at Keeneland, the second of which was scheduled for this Sunday, said Stall.

Gayego won the $250,000 Presque Isle Mile on Friday evening and established a track record in the process.

Gayego was kept to the outside by jockey Alan Garcia, just behind the pressured pace set by Black Belt. Succesful Dan, under Julien Leparoux, pressed the pace in second. On the far turn, Garcia made his move while Successful Dan took the lead. Gayego got on even terms and the two dueled in the stretch before Gayego drew clear late to win by two lengths. Running Stag got up for third, three lengths behind Successful Dan.

Saturday night's nine-race program will mark the end of the summer racing season at Penn National Race Course. The Grantville, Pa., track will take a two-week break for its regularly scheduled fall maintenance. Live racing will resume on Wednesday, Sept. 29.

POMONA, Calif. – Jockey Martin Pedroza popped the gate Thursday at Fairplex Park, winning with six of his nine mounts on opening day of the Los Angeles County Fair meet.

But in the “King of the Ring” match race between all-time leading Fairplex rider Pedroza and second-leading rider David Flores, it was Flores who got the jump. He led wire to wire on Cat Brando, winning the 1 1/16-mile race by a length over Pedroza and favorite Dave’s Ruler. The jockey assignments were made by random draw.