LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Essential Quality had his first breeze since he won the Belmont Stakes on June 5 when going a half-mile in 48.80 seconds without company early Saturday at Churchill.

Trainer Brad Cox said he intends to work Essential Quality again this coming weekend at Churchill.

“I’m planning on working quite a few of our best horses before we scoot out of here with everything” on Monday, he said, including Mandaloun. “Some of our stable is leaving for Saratoga earlier in the week.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Maxfield came out of his emphatic Saturday victory in the Grade 2 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs in fine shape and will be among the Brendan Walsh stable shipping Monday to Saratoga.

Maxfield earned a 103 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the Foster by 3 1/4 lengths under Jose Ortiz. The Godolphin homebred now has won 7 of 8 career starts, with his only defeat coming in the Santa Anita Handicap on March 6.

Two-time Grade 1 winner Ce Ce was scheduled to arrive Tuesday in South Florida as a confirmed starter in the Grade 2, $350,000 Princess Rooney, the centerpiece of the Summit of Speed card Saturday at Gulfstream Park.

Trainer Michael McCarthy said Sunday from his California base that Ce Ce was booked on a FedEx flight and that the 5-year-old mare was to be entered Wednesday, when fields for the Princess Rooney and the rest of the Saturday card were to be drawn at the South Florida track.

Jockey Jorge Vargas Jr. returned to race riding Saturday at Belmont Park and won with his second mount when Back Channel captured the 10th race at 57-1.

The mounts were the rider’s first since March 20, 2021, which was the date Vargas went down in a frightening spill at Aqueduct. The rider sustained a lumbar fracture, said agent Jimmy Riccio Jr. Vargas has since recuperated. He was named on a mount Friday at Belmont Park, but the horse was scratched, said Riccio, so Vargas had his first two mounts back Saturday.

Hot Rod Charlie, a game second in the Belmont Stakes on June 5, is under strong consideration for the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational on July 17 at Monmouth Park after working five furlongs in 59.80 seconds on Friday at Santa Anita.

“It’s not inked in, but that’s our tentative thought,” trainer Doug O’Neill said of the $1 million Haskell at 1 1/8 miles.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The field for next Saturday’s Grade 2, $350,000 Princess Rooney Invitational remains in flux eight days out from the race, with the status of several of the fillies and mares on the second invitation list still in question as of Friday, including that of Grade 1 winner Ce Ce. But barring an unforeseen setback over the weekend, one mare who will be on a van to South Florida come Monday is five-time stakes winner Bronx Beauty, trainer Anthony Margotta Jr. confirmed.

The pandemic summer of 2020 made for an entirely different feel at Ellis Park. Not only were there few fans in the old grandstand at the Henderson, Ky., track, but trainers and jockeys who in prior years would have traveled to Saratoga had no choice but to stay put in Kentucky.

Turf racing has been suspended at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., in order to perform maintenance on the course, officials for the track announced on Thursday.

Rich Glazier, the popular Delaware Park paddock and television host and racing ambassador for better than three decades, passed away Tuesday at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. He was 73.

A veteran of the U. S. Army, Glazier spent 18 months in Vietnam during the war, serving two tours in the intelligence division. A Delaware native and lifelong passionate racing fan, Glazier decided to pursue a career at the racetrack in 1987 after surviving a pair of heart attacks he felt were caused by the stress of his work as an accountant.

The New York Racing Association’s live-racing productions will be broadcast on SNY, a regional sports network, for 15 weekends this year, beginning on Saturday, according to NYRA.

SNY, which is available in seven million homes in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, will broadcast both America’s Day at the Races and Saratoga Live throughout the summer and fall, NYRA said, including eight consecutive weekends during the upcoming Saratoga meet, which starts on July 15. SNY will also broadcast the shows during the fall Belmont Park meet.