SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Skelly, the 4-1 choice on the morning line, has been scratched from Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Stakes, trainer Steve Asmussen said Friday.

“It’d take his best to win that,” Asmussen said. “He was not himself this week.”

Asmussen said that he doesn’t plan on taking Skelly out of training, explaining that the horse “just needs more time.”

Skelly is a seven-time stakes winner who finished second in the Vanderbilt last year.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In dual classic winner Sovereignty, Bill Mott has the top 3-year-old in the division. In Stars and Stripes, he has a 3-year-old seemingly on the rise.

Stars and Stripes, a son of Not This Time, won his second straight race by a blowout margin when he took a first-level allowance by 7 1/4 lengths here on Thursday. That followed a 10 1/2-length maiden score at Aqueduct in the slop on June 15.

Unlike his maiden win, Stars and Stripes came from seven lengths back on Thursday and was caked in dirt when he returned to be unsaddled.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It’s not often you’ll find a multiple Grade 1 winner in a restricted stakes, but Chancer McPatrick was one of eight 3-year-olds entered Friday for next Thursday’s $135,000 Curlin Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles. The Curlin is open to 3-year-olds who have not won a graded stakes at a mile or over in 2025.

Chancer McPatrick won the Grade 1 Hopeful here last summer, as well as the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Aqueduct in the fall. He is winless in four starts since.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Fierceness and Mindframe both worked out Friday morning over Saratoga’s main track, but it’s not expected the two will be seen together on the main track in the Grade 1 Whitney on Aug. 2.

Both horses are trained by Todd Pletcher and owned by Mike Repole, though Mindframe also is co-owned by Vinnie and Teresa Viola’s St. Elias Stable. Pletcher has said several times he isn’t keen on running the two against each other unless he has to or it makes sense. It likely won’t make sense until the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

Sayucan keeps stepping up her game as evidenced by her runner-up finish in the $225,000 Iowa Oaks earlier this month at Prairie Meadows. She set the pace and was just caught on the wire by a quality foe in Quickick.

Sayucan’s effort came one start after she romped by 12 lengths in an Iowa-bred sprint stakes at her base of Prairie Meadows. The Iowa Oaks was a somewhat rare two-turn start for Sayucan.

Cornishman on Friday had his first work since capturing the Grade 3, $300,000 Cornhusker Handicap earlier this month at his base of Prairie Meadows.

He went a sharp half-mile in 46.80 seconds. It was the second fastest of 36 works at the distance at the Iowa track Friday.

Trainer Dan McFarlane said next-race plans are to be determined, but the $200,000 West Virginia Governor’s Cup will be considered. The 1 1/16-mile race is Aug. 3 at Mountaineer Park.

Jockey Alex Birzer has begun what will be the longest layoff of his career, but the 51-year-old is motivated to return to the saddle after being sidelined during an accident in the starting gate June 30 at Prairie Meadows.

“I’ll make a comeback,” he said Thursday. “I’m two shy from 4,000 [wins]. I’m not going to shut it down with that.”

Birzer could be out for four to six months after breaking both the tibia and fibula bones above one of his ankles. He had surgeries July 1 and July 5. The accident happened as a filly he was aboard flipped in the starting gate.