The Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa and Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale will not host race meetings this summer because of the coronavirus pandemic and have asked the California Horse Racing Board to move those racing dates to Golden Gate Fields, according to discussion at a racing board dates committee teleconference meeting Wednesday.

Fairmount Park in southern Illinois is set to resume racing spectator-free following a break of more than two months necessitated by governmental restrictions enacted during March as a response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Hawthorne Racecourse just outside Chicago also announced Wednesday it was set to resume its interrupted Standardbred meet next week.

WHO’S HOT

The impressive victory by Maxfield in the Matt Winn last Saturday at Churchill Downs caused his odds to tumble to 6-1 from last week’s 15-1 on the line set by Marty McGee of Daily Racing Form for the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5. That makes him the current fourth choice, behind Nadal, Tiz the Law, and Charlatan. The lone newcomer to the top 20 is Dr Post, who replaces Major Fed. Dr Post is scheduled to make his graded stakes debut in the Belmont Stakes on June 20. He is 50-1 on McGee’s line.

Though the fate of his victory in a division of the Arkansas Derby on May 2 is to be determined, Charlatan continues to train for potential tasks ahead, and on Wednesday at Santa Anita he breezed an easy half-mile in 50 seconds for trainer Bob Baffert in his first work since the race. Of the 94 works on Wednesday at Santa Anita, his was the only one designated as breezing.

Whether upcoming weeks are a breeze for him is in question.

Trainer Christophe Clement will split up his pair of stakes-winning 3-year-old turf horses for their next starts.

Decorated Invader, the Grade 1 winning 2-year-old who won the $75,000 Cutler Bay Stakes at Gulfstream in his 3-year-old debut March 28, will make his next start in the Grade 2, $150,000 Pennine Ridge Stakes on June 20 at Belmont Park.

Gufo, who won his third straight race when he took the English Channel Stakes on May 2 at Gulfstream, is being pointed to the $150,000 Cinema Stakes on June 6 at Santa Anita. That plan is pending travel arrangements.

For nearly three decades, Louie Roussel III has followed the same script. Winter in New Orleans, summer in Chicago.

In a year where little has gone according to script for anyone, Roussel has made a detour. Instead of moving north following the winter at Fair Grounds, Roussel has shipped his horses to South Florida for the spring and summer.

Trainers Jack Carava, Matt Chew, Leonard Powell, and John Sadler were issued warnings by Santa Anita stewards earlier this month after runners in their care showed the presence of scopolamine in post-race tests taken after races from mid-October to mid-February at Del Mar and Santa Anita.

The trainers escaped more stringent penalties after the stewards ruled that “contamination was the cause for these positives and warnings were the appropriate penalty,” according to a summarization that appeared in the weekly minutes that stewards submit to the California Horse Racing Board.

The Grade 3 Honeymoon Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on turf Saturday and the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes for fillies and mares on Sunday are the main races at Santa Anita this weekend.

The $100,000 Honeymoon Stakes at 1 1/8 miles has a projected field of nine – Croughavouke, Fashion Royalty, Guitty, K P Dreamin, Laura’s Light, Little Bird, Parkour, Red Lark, and Stela Star.

Keeper Ofthe Stars, winner of the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes on Monday at Santa Anita, will not have a busy summer in advance of a potential start in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Keeneland in November.

Trainer Jonathan Wong said Wednesday that Keeper Ofthe Stars may have only one race in the interim, but said he wanted to see the stakes schedules for the Del Mar summer and Santa Anita autumn meetings before confirming plans.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Race Dates Committee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Wednesday morning approved a special request by Keeneland Racecourse to run five live racing dates in July.

The approval gave the okay to an agreement between Keeneland and Ellis Park that will allow Keeneland to run spectator-free from July 8-12, overlapping dates that had been awarded to Ellis Park late last year, prior to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Keeneland announced the agreement late Friday night, and the committee was widely expected to approve the request.