ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The rapid Essence Hit Man’s only try around two turns was good, and a repeat of that performance would probably be good enough to get the job done in Friday’s headliner, a 1 1/16-mile allowance race for 3-year-olds that serves as a prep for the Sept. 25 Ontario Derby.

Essence Hit Man is unquestionably the leading 3-year-old sprinter at Woodbine. In the spring, he captured the six-furlong Woodstock Stakes with a 93 Beyer Speed Figure and won the seven-furlong Queenston Stakes with a 99 Beyer.

 It was about this time a year ago that co-owner Adele Dilschneider and trainer Al Stall Jr. came up with a Super Derby horse in Blame. Now they have Apart, who put his name in the hat for the Grade 2, $500,000 race by winning last weekend’s $100,000 Prelude at Louisiana Downs.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Carem Crescent, a winner of two stakes and runner-up to Tribal Belle for the new filly and mare sprinter Sovereign Award last year, has yet to find her best stride this season.

On Saturday at Woodbine, Carem Crescent will be looking to turn things around in the $150,000 Seaway, a seven-furlong race for fillies and mares which attracted a field of five.

“She’s been a little disappointing, after the year she had last year,” said Malcolm Pierce, who trains the homebred Carem Crescent for owner Eugene Melnyk.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Adding injury to insult for Team Rachel Alexandra, their top 2-year-old colt, Kantharos, has been retired from racing after suffering fractured sesamoids in his left foreleg following a Monday workout at Saratoga.

On Monday, Kantharos worked five furlongs in 1:03.90 over the Oklahoma training track, but apparently took a bad step galloping out. Back at the barn, he appeared to be uncomfortable as he was led around the walking ring. X-rays revealed the injury.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Charles Lopresti has been training horses since 1994, but has never run a horse at Saratoga, nor has he run in a Grade 1 stakes. Both of those streaks will come to an end Saturday when he sends out Here Comes Ben in the Grade 1, $250,000 Forego Stakes going seven furlongs over Saratoga’s main track.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Sovereign Default, who was scratched out of the Grade 2 Saratoga Special, blew out three furlongs in 36.55 seconds Tuesday morning over the main track in preparation for a start in the Grade 1 Hopeful on Monday. He galloped out a half-mile in 48.80 seconds.

Sovereign Default was a first-out winner at Belmont in July, winning a 5 1/2-furlong race in 1:03.79 and earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 94. Trainer Rick Violette said Sovereign Default was going through a growth spurt around the time of the Special and he wanted to give him more time.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Unrivaled Belle, second as the favorite in the Grade 1 Ruffian Invitational here on Aug. 1, will make her next start in the Grade 1 Beldame at Belmont Park on Oct. 2, trainer Bill Mott confirmed Tuesday.

Mott had been toying with the idea of cutting Unrivaled Belle back to a sprint distance to see if she would be a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Mott thought the Grade 1 Ballerina, run at seven furlongs here last Saturday, was too close to her last race, and doesn’t see any other sprint options on the schedule that fits his filly.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Jimmy Jerkens hopes to carry the momentum of his Grade 1 win with Afleet Express in last Saturday’s Travers into this Saturday, when he sends out Convocation in the Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward Stakes against Quality Road.

Convocation is coming off a hard-fought second-level allowance win over Glenwood Canyon here on Aug. 4. Glenwood Canyon finished second in a similar spot on Monday.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A year ago at this time, few people outside of upstate New York had ever heard of Tim Snyder, a broke horseman with no horses who was commuting over 100 miles roundtrip to make roughly $50 a day.

This summer at Saratoga, Snyder’s got people offering him six-figures for a horse, buying him lobsters at Siro’s, and wanting to tell his life story in books, television, and movies.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The racing office had a difficult time filling some stakes races at the Saratoga meet. The Riskaverse was not among them.

With 23 entries for the turf – and four more for the dirt – the Riskaverse, for 3-year-old fillies at a mile on the inner turf, was split into two wildly competitive divisions and will be run as the fourth and ninth races on Thursday’s 10-race card. Each division of the Riskaverse will be worth $70,000 and will be limited to 10 starters.