Independence Day will have a different meaning this year for horsemen stabled at Churchill Downs.

On that day, July 4, all trainers will be required to vacate the grounds at the Louisville track for eight weeks due to a decision by Churchill to completely remake its turf course, a $10 million project that Churchill calls “immense and extremely time-sensitive.” Crews are expected to work around the clock at the track to get the new grass in the ground as quickly as possible, and heavy machinery will be rumbling through the track’s backstretch day and night.

Sam Houston will launch a 20-date meet for Quarter Horses on Wednesday. The dates were transferred to the Houston track from Retama Park near San Antonio.

Retama is undergoing repairs from a winter ice storm in February.

Sam Houston will race through Aug. 7.

The TQHA Sale Futurity and Retama Park Derby, which are both $100,000-added races – will share a card July 31. The Texas Summer Showdown program of six stakes for Texas-breds is July 30.

Remington Park has announced the dates for its richest races. The Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby is set for Sept. 26 and the $400,000 Springboard Mile for 2-year-olds will be Dec. 19.

The Sunday races lead a schedule of 34 stakes worth a total of $3.8 million. The 67-date meet will run from Aug. 20-Dec. 19.

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Sons tend to follow their fathers into training careers more than daughters do. One daughter who has carried on the family business is Sarah Nicole Davidson.

Davidson, 34, opened a public racing stable in 2018. She is based at Lone Star Park and shares a barn with her father, longtime trainer Brent Davidson.

“Sarah was raised around it and she just loves it,” said Brent Davidson.

Patience paid off Thursday evening for trainer Lon Wiggins when Angaston returned from a 22-month layoff in going gate to wire in a $99,628 turf-sprint allowance at Churchill. Mitchell Murrill was aboard for Wiggins and the Twin Magnolia Farm of Jim Jankiewicz.

Angaston, a 6-year-old gelding, had not raced since August 2019, when he suffered injuries to his hind legs and head in a highway accident just south of Chicago. The horse trailer in which he was being transported was returning to Kentucky from a race at Canterbury Park in Minnesota when the accident occurred.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Heavy favorites appear to be limiting field sizes for the marquee events that will help bring an end to the Churchill Downs spring meet next Saturday.

Maxfield is scaring off the opposition in the Stephen Foster, while Envoutante is doing the same with the Fleur de Lis. Both Grade 2 races will be run at 1 1/8 miles as Win and You’re In events toward the Nov. 5-6 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar. There are five other stakes on the card.

Indiana Grand on Thursday announced a 10-percent purse increase for its ongoing 2021 race meeting.

Beginning July 5, overnight Thoroughbred purses will be raised 10 percent while Quarter Horse races will get roughly a 6 percent boost, according to a press release.

Stakes races remain at published levels.

ELMONT, N.Y. – With most COVID-related restrictions lifted in New York by Gov. Andrew Cuomo effective Tuesday, the New York Racing Association announced Wednesday that Saratoga will be open this summer at 100 percent capacity.

Fans will no longer be required to show proof of vaccination, but non-vaccinated individuals will be required to wear a facial covering during their day at Saratoga. As previously announced, fans who do show proof of vaccination will receive free grandstand admission to the July 15 opening day.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Weyburn, beaten a neck when second to Mandaloun in last Sunday’s Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park, will be pointed to the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes on July 31 at Saratoga, trainer Jimmy Jerkens said Wednesday.

In the Pegasus, Weyburn was making his first start since running fourth in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial on April 3, having missed some time – and a planned start in the Peter Pan on May 8 – due to illness.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Ava’s Grace will take a significant drop in class and make a surface switch when she runs in the Cupecoy’s Joy division of the New York Stallion Stakes series at Belmont Park. The Cupecoy’s Joy, for 3-year-old fillies, and the Spectacular Bid, for 3-year-olds, will both be run Saturday. Each is worth $150,000 and scheduled for seven furlongs on turf.