SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said Friday he will scratch two-time graded stakes winner Tonalist’s Shape from Saturday’s Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland to await the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks the following week at Saratoga.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Luis Saez, one of the leading riders in the U.S., was abruptly pulled off his mounts on Friday at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington after health officials informed the track he had tested positive for coronavirus.

In the 10 race meetings at Del Mar from 2015 to 2019, Flavien Prat won or tied for first place at the summer meeting three times and won the riding title at the autumn meeting once. He finished second at four meetings.

Prat, 27, is expected to have an equally strong performance at this summer’s Del Mar meet, although the number of days he will be riding at other venues might affect where he ends up in the standings.

Rick Arthur, who as California’s equine medical director has been at the forefront of numerous policy changes for more than a decade, is retiring in the next year.

Arthur, 71, said on Thursday that he had planned to retire on June 30, at the end of the 2019-2020 fiscal year, but that the coronavirus pandemic has delayed interviews for his replacement. Now, Arthur said he is postponing retirement to June 2021.

Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., has canceled its six-race twilight card tonight, citing heavy rains and winds that have beset the Jersey Shore for most of Friday.

Monmouth was scheduled to open its live card at 5 p.m. Eastern. The card had three maiden races and three claiming races on it. It would have been the track’s second Friday card following the beginning of its delayed 2020 meet last week.

In a release, Monmouth said it remained on schedule to hold its Saturday card, with a post of 12:50 p.m. Eastern for the first of 12 races.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – A total of 61 Canadian-bred 3-year-olds remain eligible for the 161st running of the $1 million Queen’s Plate, a 1 1/4-mile Canadian classic here Sept. 12.

The connections of 58 Queen’s Plate hopefuls made the July 1 sustaining payment, with an additional three supplementing to the Queen’s Plate, opening leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, at a cost of $5,000. The $10,000 entry fee is due Sept. 9, at which time horses not nominated can be supplemented for $25,000.

Jack Sisterson said he’s “hobbling around like a 90-year-old man,” and yet there he was Thursday morning, looking after his horses at Keeneland, less than 72 hours after undergoing surgery for a herniated disc in his lower back Monday in a Lexington, Ky., hospital.

“I was having an awful pain going down my right leg,” said Sisterson, 35. “The doctor explained to me what he was going to do, and it must’ve worked. The pain relief was pretty instant.”

Indiana Grand in Shelbyville will require jockeys to ride exclusively at the track beginning this Friday under a new policy put in place one day after a rider on his way to the facility was informed that he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Under the new policy, any jockey who accepts a mount on Friday will be covered by the new policy, the track said. The track will only allow other riders onto the grounds if they have quarantined for 14 days and test negative for coronavirus.

Finger Lakes racetrack in upstate New York has pushed back its planned reopening by one week and will resume live racing on July 20, the track’s racing secretary said on Thursday.

Finger Lakes, which was initially scheduled to open its live meet on April 25, had previously announced that the track would reopen on July 13. The track’s racing office was scheduled to take entries for that date on Monday. But Fred Hutton, the track’s racing secretary, said that the opening had to be delayed to iron out some issues.

Martin Garcia, the journeyman jockey, has been informed by Kentucky health officials that he tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to his agent.

Garcia was on his way to Indiana Grand in Shelbyville, where he had a mount in a stakes race Wednesday night, when he received news of the positive test, according to his agent, Jay Fedor. Garcia was tested Tuesday at Keeneland, Fedor said, as a condition of riding at the track during its five-day summer meet.

Fedor said that Garcia had not displayed any symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.