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.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – There have been a handful of 2-year-olds by the young stallion Gun Runner to have raced, and Steve Asmussen, who trained the Horse of the Year, had saddled two of the stallion’s winners through Tuesday.

Both were for Winchell Thoroughbreds, who in partnership raced the $15 million earner.

“The first crop of Gun Runner, they’re performing extremely well,” Asmussen said. “It’s been very exciting.”

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Karl Broberg has been North America’s leading trainer by wins six times. He’s picked up a swath of titles across the Southwest and into the Midwest. And, he hit a milestone of 4,000 training wins last week at Prairie Meadows.

But later this summer, Broberg will be charting some new territory.

“We’ve got 12 stalls for Saratoga,” he said. “We’re going to need a lot of luck.”

Mystic Guide, rated the best older dirt horse in the world off wins this year in the Razorback at Oaklawn and in the Dubai World Cup, which he won by almost four lengths, is thriving as he prepares to return to racing July 3 at Belmont in the $400,000 Suburban.

On June 13 at Fair Hill, Mystic Guide put in a strong five-furlong drill with a powerful gallop-out working in company with 3-year-old Proxy. The pair was timed in 1:00.20 with Mystic Guide cruising smoothly out close to another quarter-mile.

Yes, Mandaloun won the $150,000 Pegasus Stakes on June 12 at Monmouth Park, but his race might have raised more questions than it provided answers.

Mandaloun took a clear midstretch lead but had to hold on to win by a neck over Weyburn, whom he had passed with relative ease in upper stretch. Mandaloun ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.63, a raw time that yielded a Beyer Speed Figure of 92, down from the 103 the colt received finishing second in the Kentucky Derby as well as the 98 he got winning the Risen Star Stakes in February.