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.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – As the meet reaches the halfway point with Wednesday’s card, figures already show that Saratoga is on its way to a record-setting meet handle-wise.

Kentucky Downs will increase its overnight purses for its September meet by 8 percent after a strong showing for its casino over the past year, the track announced on Monday.

Kentucky Downs, which will run six all-turf racing days from Sept. 5-12, will now distribute an average of $876,000 a day in overnight races for Kentucky-bred horses, with maiden special weight races worth $135,000 and first-level allowance races worth $145,800, the track said. Second-level allowances will be worth $156,600.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mandaloun, among the leaders of the 3-year-old division, will most likely miss the major races the remainder of the year and will have an early 2022 target of the $20 million Saudi Cup in February, his connections said Monday.

Mandaloun has a sore right hind foot, and though the X-rays are clean, the horse will likely get six weeks off. Garrett O’Rourke, the racing manager of Juddmonte Farms, which owns Mandaloun said, “The family really wants to target the Saudi Cup.”

DEL MAR, Calif. - From the early days of his career in Florida, way back in the spring, Pappacap displayed flashy works prior to a smart debut win for trainer Mark Casse and owners and breeders George and Karen Russell.

That foundation led to Pappacap’s victorious stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar, which Casse hopes will lead to greater success in Southern California over the next three months.

“We mapped the plan before we sent him out there,” Casse said Sunday morning. “Part one is done. Now there are more parts.”