SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Life Is Good was the top 3-year-old this winter. Essential Quality, last year’s 2-year-old champion, emerged as the top 3-year-old of the spring. First Captain is attempting to get into the conversation this summer.

On Saturday, at dawn in Saratoga, the trio of 3-year-olds, each put in workouts within about a 10-minute span.

Life Is Good, now in the barn of Todd Pletcher, worked four furlongs in 48.88 seconds just after the Oklahoma training track opened at 5:30 a.m. He got his last quarter in 23.76 seconds.

Two jockeys have been suspended five days each and fined $500 by Monmouth Park stewards for violating the strict whip rules put in place this year by the New Jersey Racing Commission.

The pair of cases are the first to come up at the Monmouth meet, which began in late May.

Carlos Montalvo was suspended from Aug. 24 through Aug. 28 after stewards held a July 16 hearing regarding his case. Carlos Lopez waived his right to a hearing and was suspended July 24 through 28.

Because the inner rail on the main track incurred damage, two of the last four races Friday at Ellis Park (races 5 and 7) were switched to the turf course. The other two remaining races already were scheduled for the turf.

Track spokeswoman Jennie Rees said a safety issue became apparent when, during a routine resurfacing, a tractor accidentally ran into the rail about 100 yards from the wire, damaging it. Whether main-track races could be run Saturday and Sunday was still to be determined as of late Friday afternoon.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Maxfield got his first feel for the Saratoga main track Friday when he worked five furlongs in 1:01 09 in company with Business Model. Maxfield got his final quarter in 24.40 seconds and galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.41 and seven furlongs in 1:27.46.

Maxfield, winner of the Grade 2 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs in his most recent start, is pointing to the Grade 1 Whitney on Aug. 7.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Kimari, the Grade 1 Madison Stakes winner, was held out of a planned start in next Wednesday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Honorable Miss Handicap when entries were taken Friday.

Trainer Wesley Ward said he felt the 4-year-old filly wasn’t 100 percent this week. Though a complete evaluation by Dr. Luis Castro, complete with X-rays and ultrasounds, showed no physical issues, Ward said he wasn’t comfortable entering Kimari in the six-furlong race.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After chasing big prizes in the Middle East during the winter, Channel Maker, North America’s male turf champion of 2020, will kick off the U.S. portion of his 7-year-old campaign in next Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Bowling Green Stakes at Saratoga.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Butch Reid Jr. would love to run his red-hot 3-year-old Beren next Friday in the 1 1/8-mile Curlin at Saratoga. But after Beren worked four furlongs in a blistering 46.78 seconds here just before the renovation break on Friday, Reid is having second thoughts.

“His work this morning was too good, too fast,” Reid said. “I really wanted him to go like he did last time, easy, in 48 and change, which is why I didn’t put a jock on him. It just doesn’t feel right to send him a mile and one-eighth in one week off a work like this.”

All-sources handle at all California venues increased 20 percent, to $1.53 billion, in the first six months of the year compared to a similar period in 2020.

The data was announced by Scott Chaney, the executive director of the California Horse Racing Board, at a meeting on Wednesday.

The former claimer Cupid’s Claws will start in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic or Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap on Aug. 21 after a game second-place finish in the Grade 3 Cougar II Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on July 18.

Cupid’s Claws was beaten 2 1/4 lengths by Pacific Classic hopeful Tizmagician in the Cougar II Stakes on dirt after dueling for the lead on the turn.

Jockey Rafael Bejarano has been denied access to all Kentucky tracks pending resolution to a July 11 incident that led to his ejection from Ellis Park in western Kentucky.

The Ellis stewards issued a ruling Sunday that bars Bejarano from all facilities under the jurisdiction of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Bejarano has not ridden since July 11.