ELMONT, N.Y. – Over the last year, Calumet Farm has won some of the biggest races on the New York Racing Association circuit, and at big prices, to boot.

Last August, Vexatious ($21) won the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga, beating champion Midnight Bisou. In December, True Timber ($16.60) pulled off a mild upset in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct. In April, Bourbonic returned the biggest mutuel ($146.50) in the history of the Grade 2 Wood Memorial. Three weeks ago, Channel Cat scored a front-running upset ($18.40) in the Grade 1 Man o’ War at Belmont Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. – While there has been a lot of discussion how the start of the Kentucky Derby impacted the performance of expected pacesetter Rock Your World, jockey Luis Saez believes his horse, Essential Quality, was also adversely impacted by the bump between those two horses leaving the starting gate.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A field of 10 older turf sprinters led by Carotari and Totally Boss is entered in the $110,000 Mighty Beau, which ends an 11-race Saturday card that precedes the simulcast of the Belmont Stakes.

The Mighty Beau goes at 5:58, nearly an hour before the Belmont.

There’s a good reason you don’t recognize the face and voice of the woman appearing on the Monmouth simulcast feed to express her opinions on upcoming races and their participants. This is Samantha Perry’s first job as a public-facing paddock host and handicapper.

The four-day opening race week of Monmouth Park’s 2021 season whipped past quicker than might have been expected.

There were no strikes or boycotts by jockeys and no in-running incidents during the 38-race week, the first race meeting in North America in which jockeys are not permitted to use whips for anything other than safety.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ed Vaughan arrived in Kentucky in November, ready for a fresh start. The 47-year-old Irish-born trainer had wearied of the difficult economics of the British racing industry and was willing to give American racing a go.

ELMONT, N.Y. – When it comes to the Belmont Stakes, trainer Doug O’Neill would rather think about what could be than what might have been.

On the day before the 2012 Belmont Stakes, O’Neill and owner Paul Reddam stood before a throng of reporters outside of Belmont Park’s Barn 1, explaining how Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another would be scratched from the Belmont and subsequently retired with a tendon injury.

A painful memory to be sure, it’s not something O’Neill dwells on.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Rebel’s Romance, the UAE Derby winner, was not entered in Saturday’s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes after developing a hind leg infection, trainer Charlie Appleby confirmed Tuesday morning.

The defection of Rebel’s Romance left a field of eight for the Belmont Stakes, entries for which were to be drawn at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Appleby said that Rebel’s Romance has been treated for the infection by veterinarians at Belmont Park.

“He’s responding but not responding quick enough to get to the Belmont,” Appleby said.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Happy Saver, who came off a seven-month layoff to win a one-mile allowance race last Friday, will be pointed to the Grade 2, $400,000 Suburban Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on July 3, trainer Todd Pletcher said Monday.

Pletcher said the timing of the Suburban appeals to him as much, if not more than the 1 1/4-mile distance of the race. Happy Saver won the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles here last October.

ELMONT, NY. – Trainer Steve Asmussen will seek his third victory in the Grade 1, $1 million Metropolitan Handicap in the last four years when he runs the streaking Silver State in the prestigious one-mile race on Saturday’s Belmont Stakes undercard.

Silver State, a son of Hard Spun, returned from a seven-month layoff last October to win a first-level allowance race by seven lengths on Oct. 22 at Keeneland. He won a second-level allowance at Churchill Downs before wintering at Oaklawn Park and winning three stakes, all around two turns, topped by the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap.