SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The $1.25 million Travers is obviously the highlight of Saturday’s outstanding 14-race program at Saratoga. Although for bettors, the short field and imposing presence of division leader Sovereignty makes the race pale in comparison to the opportunities that present themselves on a challenging undercard featuring four other Grade 1 stakes.

The undercard is topped by the Personal Ensign, which features the local return of reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna, and an absolutely wide-open renewal of the seven-furlong Allen Jerkens.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – She Feels Pretty, a head winner over European invader Diamond Rain in Saturday’s Grade 1 E.P. Taylor at Woodbine, will be aimed at the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

Trainer Cherie DeVaux said Monday that the coming weeks will decide whether she simply trains She Feels Pretty to that race or runs her once beforehand, perhaps in a spot like the Grade 3, $175,000 Waya Stakes at Aqueduct on Oct. 5.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who has not ridden since December 2016 but is hoping to make a comeback in coming months, was briefly hospitalized on Sunday after an incident during morning workouts at Del Mar.

Valenzuela was unseated prior to the start of a workout aboard the unraced gelding Fire Mountain, trained by Peter Eurton. Valenzuela was treated and released by midday.

“I’m sore,” Valenzuela said in a brief interview with Daily Racing Form early Sunday afternoon. “I’m relaxing.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – Kopion, the dominant winner of the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff in May but second in her last two starts, worked a half-mile in 47.80 seconds at Del Mar for a fall campaign that has yet to be finalized.

Trainer Richard Mandella said on Sunday that Kopion may run in the Grade 3 Chillingworth Stakes for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on Oct. 4, or may not start until the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

“Our next race might be the Breeders’ Cup,” Mandella said. “She runs well fresh.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – For the record book, Velocity’s upset win in Saturday’s Del Mar Oaks was the second career Grade 1 win for jockey Ricky Gonzalez.

In a sense, though, it was his first public win at that level. There was nothing wrong with Fair Maiden’s surprise win in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes at Santa Anita in December 2020, other than it occurred during the pandemic before an empty grandstand.

“It was Covid,” Gonzalez said on Sunday morning in the Del Mar stable area. “There was no crowd or anything.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Howard Wolowitz, a Grade 1 winner at Kentucky Downs last year, put in a strong workout Friday morning at Saratoga that convinced his connections he’s ready to return to Kentucky Downs in the $2 million Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint on Aug. 30.

Howard Wolowitz zipped a half-mile in 46.64 seconds Friday morning over the Oklahoma dirt training track, while galloping out five furlongs in 59.96 seconds. He went in company with Urban Legend, a 4-year-old gelding who is 2 for 13.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. was selected the winner of the Mike Venezia Award, which honors the rider who displays the exemplary sportsmanship and citizenship that personified Venezia, who died from injuries suffered in a spill at Belmont Park in 1988.

Ortiz, 33, was chosen by a committee comprised of members of the Venezia family, representatives of The Jockeys’ Guild, and retired Eclipse Award-winning jockey Richard Migliore.