ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Coast to coast, this feels like the summer of Flavien Prat.

Timing is everything – which is why the fourth running of the Ellis Park Derby on Sunday won’t hold the same importance as the third.

Last August, for the first (and hopefully only) time, the Ellis Park Derby served as a key prep for a couple of Triple Crown races. That’s because the Kentucky Derby and Preakness had been postponed to September and October, respectively, due to the pandemic. (The Belmont Stakes had already been run in June.)

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Weyburn, the top-ranked contender on Daily Racing Form’s Queen’s Plate watch, will bypass the $1 million Plate at Woodbine Aug. 22 to give him more time between starts, according to Chiefswood Stable’s general manager Robert Landry.

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ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. -- Ten horses, headed by American grass star Domestic Spending, were entered Tuesday in the $600,000 Mister D. Stakes, the former Arlington Million, one of three Grade 1 turf races to be run Saturday at Arlington.

Domestic Spending, who drew post 3, will be a short-priced favorite in the Mister D., expected to be the final renewal of a race run 37 times as the Arlington Million, which offered racing’s first seven-figure purse when it was introduced in 1981.

The dazzling juvenile stakes winner Big City Lights underwent arthroscopic surgery over the weekend to remove a knee chip and is sidelined until next season.

After winning his first two starts by nearly a combined 20 lengths for owner William Peeples and trainer Luis Mendez, Big City Lights was expected to start favored Aug. 7 in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar. He missed the race when his mannerisms changed, hinting something was amiss, after a blazing 46.80-second work on July 27 at Del Mar.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Joseph O’Brien, a son of Aidan O’Brien, made quite an impression with his first starter at Saratoga when State of Rest pulled a 21-1 upset in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Saratoga Derby Invitational.

State of Rest, with only one win from seven starts coming in, rallied from sixth position under John Velazquez to win by a length. He earned a 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After a frustrating start to the meet, things are turning around for trainer Chad Brown.

Brown, who started Saratoga with 5 wins and 15 seconds from his first 50 starters, has won nine races from his last 28 runners to move into second place in the standings, two wins behind Mike Maker. During that recent run, Brown earned his 2,000th career victory.

Five-time stakes winner Mo Forza will be ready for his 2021 debut in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on Aug. 21, trainer Peter Miller said over the weekend.

Mo Forza has not raced since winning the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile at Santa Anita last October. He was a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Mile last fall when he sustained a soft-tissue injury.

Several horses being considered for the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on Aug. 21 at Del Mar may instead run in stakes in the Mid-Atlantic.

Ginobili, winner of an allowance race at a mile by 9 3/4 lengths on July 17, is likely to run in the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic, an $800,000 race on Aug. 27.

Nick Cosato, who directs the Slam Dunk Racing partnership that co-owns Ginobili, said the other possible spots for Ginobili are the Pacific Classic or the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes on Aug. 28 at Del Mar.

Santa Anita is raising purses for overnight races and some stakes for its 2021-22 winter-spring meeting, which begins Dec. 26, the second time in less than a year the track has increased prize money.

According to a statement released Monday, maiden special weight races will be worth $67,000, an increase of $6,000 from the corresponding meeting earlier this year and $12,000 from the 2019-20 season. A first-condition allowance race will be worth $69,000, compared to $57,000 in the winter of 2019-20 and $63,000 last year.