OCEANPORT, N.J. – The Quick Call Stakes on July 29 at Saratoga produced a nail-biting finish with Beau Choix prevailing by a head over Lonesome Street with Lighthouse Sound also right there in the photo.

That trio are about to meet again, only this time they take the show on the road.

The rematch comes Saturday in the $100,000 Restoration Stakes for 3-year-olds going 1 1/8 miles on the turf at Monmouth Park.

The Restoration shares top billing with another $100,000 stakes, the Miss Woodford for 3-year-old filly sprinters.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Rachel Alexandra, the reigning Horse of the Year, drew post 2 and was made the 2-5 morning-line favorite for Sunday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga.

It will be Rachel Alexandra’s first start in a Grade 1 race since she won the Woodward against older males here last September. Rachel Alexandra, who has won both the Fleur de Lis and the Lady’s Secret stakes in her last two starts, will carry high weight of 122 pounds under jockey Calvin Borel. This will be her first start at 1 1/4 miles.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Discreetly Mine vaulted to the top of the 3-year-old sprint division with his brilliant performance in the Grade 2 Amsterdam earlier this month. The question is whether Discreetly Mine can duplicate that performance when he returns less than four weeks later and stretches out an additional sixteenth of a mile to seven furlongs against a stellar field in Saturday’s Grade 1 King’s Bishop at Saratoga.

I didn’t know what a Travers was in 1977. I bet on my first one in 1978, watched my first at Saratoga a year later, and haven’t missed being there for one since. It may sound like a long time, but in reality, Saturday’s 141st edition will be only my 33rd.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A cutback in distance, a drop in class, and a favorable set-up may give Katy Now a slight edge in a competitive field of 3-year-old fillies entered in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Victory Ride Stakes at Saratoga.

The Victory Ride, run at six furlongs, is the first leg of a pick-four wager that includes the Ballerina, King’s Bishop and Travers, with a guaranteed pool of $1 million.

John Mabee and several other California horsemen founded the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and began running summer racing meets at the track by the Pacific Ocean in 1970. Attendance and handle showed steady growth, but in 1988 off-track betting was introduced in California, and tracks were challenged to avoid the erosion of on-track customers.

AUBURN, Wash. –Trainer Brad Varner and his crew do things the old-fashioned way. From the boss on down, everyone associated with his Emerald Downs racing operation is older than 50. They call themselves the AARP Barn, though Varner, 60, isn’t necessarily the retiring type.

Good Reason Sa and Princelike finished only a head apart in a division of the Golden State Derby trials at Los Alamitos on Aug. 14. Chances are they will be very close to each other again in Saturday’s $262,500 final, on opposite sides of the track.

Good Reason Sa drew the rail for the Golden State Derby, while Princelike is on the outside of the nine-horse field. They are the leading contenders in the 400-yard final, which does not include fastest qualifier Chivalry Sr. After his trial win, Chivalry Sr was vanned off and was not entered in the Golden State Derby.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – No Explaining and Exclusive Love were both scratched from Sunday’s Lake Placid at Saratoga when that Grade 3 stakes was taken off the turf. They will both reappear Saturday at Woodbine in the $150,000 Ontario Colleen Stakes, a one-mile grass route for 3-year-old fillies.

The European import No Explaining has scored twice in allowance company on the turf here this year, winning over seven and nine furlongs. Most recently, she came from far back to finish third in the Grade 2 Lake George Stakes at Saratoga, missing second by a half-length to Exclusive Love.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – When Hunter’s Tiger Paw last was seen locally she was winning a mile and 70-yard first-level allowance that had been taken off the turf on June 3. But when Hunter’s Tiger Paw returns to action here in Saturday’s $150,000 Ontario Colleen, she will be doing so as a winner of back-to-back stakes at Minnesota’s Canterbury Park and as a horse to be reckoned with in the open one-mile turf stakes for 3-year-old fillies.