Jockey Juan Gutierrez brought Semi Sweet ($15.60) from last to upset 7-5 favorite Gazing in the first race Thursday at Emerald Downs. It was the 2,000th win for the 50-year-old Washington Hall of Fame jockey. He did not rest on his laurels as he proceeded to win the next two races on the 10-race card.

“I feel real good, and it’s an emotional moment for me,” Gutierrez said. “Getting 2,000 wins is great. I always try to be consistent. You can’t do something like that without the help of owners, trainers, grooms, and everyone else on the backstretch."

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. won five races Thursday at Saratoga, the second time in his career he has done that.

Ortiz, who only won four races through the first four days of the meet, won Thursday’s second on Thomas Shelby ($6.50), the fourth on Fresco ($3), the fifth on Irish Front ($9.50), the seventh on Bertranda ($6.70), and the ninth on Admiral Lynch ($16.80).

He was scheduled to ride Deputy Flag in the 10th, but that horse was scratched at the gate by the track veterinarian.

Keeneland Association, the not-for-profit Central Kentucky racing and sales company, has split one of its senior management positions into two as the company seeks to implement a “strategic realignment of its core racing and sales operations,” the company announced on Thursday.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Last week, trainer John Terranova said he was seriously considering running New York-bred Funny Guy in the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes on Aug. 1. He has since lowered his sights and now plans to run Funny Guy in Thursday’s $85,000 John Morrissey Handicap for New York-breds at seven furlongs.

:: DRF's Saratoga headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher brings a pair of potentially exciting 3-year-olds back to the races this weekend at Saratoga.

On Saturday, Pletcher will bring the undefeated Money Moves back off a near three-month layoff in a second-level allowance against older horses going 1 1/8 miles. On Sunday, Pletcher will send out the impressive debut winner Happy Saver in a first-level allowance, also at 1 1/8 miles.

Big Talker, who starts for the first time on Saturday in a maiden special weight for 2-year-olds at a mile on turf at Del Mar, is the latest foal out of the prolific mare Not Unusual to reach the races.

Big Talker is a full brother to Big Score, a graded stakes winner who has earned $643,542, and a half-brother to the graded stakes winner Mucho Unusual, who has earned $507,715. Two other full brothers, Big Buzz and the stakes-placed Unusually Big, have earned more than $100,000.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The last move proved to be the winning move in Thursday’s Grade 1, $100,000 A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase Stakes at Saratoga, as Moscato was passed by Optimus Prime going into the far turn and then ran by that one in the shadow of the wire to win by three-quarters of a length.

It was 2 1/2 lengths back in third to Gibralfaro, who was followed by Redicean and Chief Justice. Pravalaguna, the pace-setting Surprising Soul, and Winner Massagot were all eased. Belisarius scratched.

A leading jockey at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., has been suspended and denied access to the grounds after a search of his vehicle turned up a device used to shock horses and at least one gun, according to a ruling from the Minnesota State Racing Commission.

Max Player, the third-place finisher in the Belmont Stakes, had an uneventful five-furlong workout in 1:02.21 on Monday at Belmont Park as he prepares for the Grade 1, $1 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 8 at Saratoga.

:: DRF's Saratoga headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mind Control will be attempting to make history at Saratoga when he seeks a Grade 1 victory for the third consecutive year in Saturday’s $250,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at six furlongs.

In the graded stakes era, no horse has won Grade 1 stakes three years in a row at Saratoga. Sky Beauty was disqualified from first in the 1992 Spinaway and won the Alabama in 1993 and Go for Wand in 1994. Heavenly Prize and Ginger Punch are the only horses to have won three Grade 1 stakes at Saratoga, but they each won two in one season.