SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – If his last two races are any indication, Giant Moon appears to be back to the form that made him the champion New York-bred 2-year-old of 2007 as well as a graded stakes winning 4-year-old of last year.

If that is indeed the case, Giant Moon figures to be very tough in Monday’s $70,000 Evan Shipman Stakes for statebreds at Saratoga. After a two-year hiatus, the Evan Shipman was brought back when the Saratoga meet expanded to 40 days. The Evan Shipman will go as race 3 on a nine-race card.

OMAHA, Neb. - Nayborhood Affair scored her fourth straight win with a front-running one-length score in Friday's $29,250 Falls Amiss Handicap for older Nebraska-bred fillies and mares on day two of Horsemen's Park's four-day meet Friday evening.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Connie and Michael, the runner-up in last month's Grade 1 Mother Goose, was scratched out of Saturday's Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga due to an abscess in her right front foot, her connections said Saturday morning.

Connie and Michael was listed as the co-second choice at 5-1 along with Acting Happy in the CCA Oaks. Devil May Care, who beat Connie and Michael by 1 1/4 lengths in the Mother Goose, is the morning-line favorite.

Delaware Park in Stanton, Del., canceled its live racing Saturday due to high temperatures and humidity in the region. Temperatures in nearby Wilmington, Del., were expected to reach 98 degrees Saturday.

Delaware Park is scheduled to resume live racing Monday. The facility remained open for simulcasting and casino gambling Saturday. 

DEL MAR, Calif. - Magna International Developments, the parent company of Santa Anita, and the Oak Tree Racing Association signed a lease agreement for Oak Tree's fall meeting at Santa Anita on Friday, officials with both sides said.

The agreement was reached a day after the California Horse Racing Board mandated that Magna International reach an agreement with Oak Tree by Friday for Magna to be allowed to hold multiple racing licenses in the state. Magna owns two racetracks in California - Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita - and an account-wagering company, Xpressbet.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Swiss Wild Cat closed along the rail to win Friday's $100,000 California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes at Del Mar, and that quick route through the 5 1/2 furlongs was the difference between a win and a loss against stablemate Hi Ho Yodeler.

Swiss Wild Cat, ridden by Christian Santiago Reyes, won the CTBA Stakes by a half-length over Hi Ho Yodeler, finishing in 1:04.15.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Beyondallboundarys beat Whoopi Kitten by 2 1/4 lengths on Friday in the $93,000 Dearly Precious Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Monmouth Park.

Paco Lopez, as hot as the sweltering afternoon on the Jersey Shore, was aboard for one of his four winners on the card.

The Dearly Precious, scheduled for last Sunday, did not fill. The racing office brought it back, and the six-furlong race went off with six runners.

Whoopi Kitten, the 13-10 favorite, broke sharply and set the fractions under Joe Bravo.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. thought Friday's Grade 3, $100,000 Schuylerville Stakes was too tough a spot for his 2-year-old filly Le Mi Geaux and ran her only at the request of owner Landson Robbins.

Dutrow was never happier to be wrong.

Taking advantage of a hotly contested pace between co-favorites Stopspendingmaria and Let's Get Fiscal as well as a relatively clean trip under apprentice rider Frederic Lenclud, Le Mi Geaux splashed down the middle of the sloppy Saratoga stretch to score a 1 1/2-length victory in the opening-day feature.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Vineyard Haven served notice he should be a force to reckon with in the sprint division and perhaps beyond during the second half of the season after splashing to an easy 1 3/4-length victory over Half Metal Jacket in Friday's $75,000 James Marvin overnight stakes at soggy Saratoga.

When jockey Oriana Rossi won her first race at Ellis Park on Aug. 16 of last year aboard Dancing Sky, she was welcomed into the club of winning riders by being doused with water, eggs, talcum powder and the like by her fellow jockeys.

Now an apprentice with 50 wins to her credit, Rossi doesn’t get greeted with such enthusiasm with each trip to the Ellis Park winner’s circle – which is a good thing, considering how often she has been there during the early stages of the Ellis meet.