Cezanne, a $3.65 million purchase as a 2-year-old in 2019, is expected to have his next start in an undetermined stakes after winning his first start around two turns in an allowance race with a $40,000 claiming option at a mile Thursday at Los Alamitos.

Cezanne is unbeaten in two starts, having also won a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs on June 6 at Santa Anita.

Ridden by Flavien Prat, Cezanne ($2.20) stalked pacesetter Bronn to the turn and took the lead in early stretch. Prat gave Cezanne a few reminders with his whip in the final furlong.

Los Alamitos concludes its two-week daytime summer meeting for Thoroughbreds with an eight-race program Sunday, but it is not clear when the track will resume daytime Thoroughbred racing.

Los Alamitos is scheduled to hold a three-week meeting from Dec. 4-20, but may ask the racing board to run a brief season in September, pending actions by Santa Anita. Los Alamitos officials have sent letters to the California Horse Racing Board in the last week expressing an interest in racing.

Maximum Security, the champion 3-year-old male of 2019, will have his first start of the summer in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap on July 18 at Del Mar, trainer Bob Baffert said Friday.

The $150,000 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles will be Maximum Security’s first race since a win in the $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 29 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“He looks fantastic,” Baffert said.

Maximum Security is scheduled to work at Santa Anita this weekend. The San Diego Handicap is a prep for Del Mar’s leading race, the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at 1 1/4 miles on Aug. 22.

For some 60 years, July was a busy month at Keeneland. But since the Lexington, Ky., track last held its internationally famous July select yearling sale in 2002, the middle of summer has been a fairly quiet period.

That’ll change this coming week when Keeneland runs a five-day meet. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the spring meet canceled in April has essentially been compacted into one week in July. The meet spans Wednesday through July 12, with 10 graded stakes worth more than a combined $2.5 million being run during the final three days.

Somewhat conspicuous by his absence from the Grade 1, $400,000 Manhattan on Saturday at Belmont Park was Zulu Alpha, one of the leading grass horses on the continent. The 7-year-old gelding instead is waiting on the Grade 2, $175,000 Elkhorn, a 1 1/2-mile turf race on July 12, closing day of the short Keeneland meet.

Zulu Alpha, an earner of more than $2 million, has raced three times this year, all at Gulfstream Park. He won the Pegasus World Cup Turf and the Mac Diarmida before being upset by his Mike Maker-trained stablemate, Bemma’s Boy, in the March 28 Pan American.

Monmouth Park will be permitted to admit 2,100 to 3,000 people each day of live racing this weekend, with the number in flux leading up to its opening card on Friday evening due to ongoing discussions between track officials and the state government, according to the track’s top official.

Del Mar will allow owners to attend workouts from 6 to 10 a.m. beginning Friday, but the track does not plan to allow owners or other spectators to attend racing at the start of its summer meeting because of the coronavirus outbreak, track officials said.

“The policy is unchanged, as of now,” track president Josh Rubinstein said on Tuesday.

Rubinstein said the track is hopeful for a change of policy later this summer.

“We’re still trying,” he said. “The door is not closed.”

The meeting runs from July 10 to Sept. 7.

ELMONT, N.Y. – After scratching her out of the Grade 1 Just a Game, trainer Mark Casse has rerouted Got Stormy to Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Poker Stakes where she will take on males for the fourth time in her career in the one-mile turf race.

Casse said he scratched Got Stormy from the Just a Game after it rained midway through the card.

“For me to run against those kind of fillies she needs everything to be perfect for her, and that just wasn’t the case,” Casse said. “I thought it was a pretty easy decision.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – Over his last 20 races, spanning two years, Mr. Buff has only been noncompetitive in the three graded stakes races in which he’s run.

Saturday, the 6-year-old New York-bred millionaire will try again to make the grade when he runs in the Grade 2, $200,000 Suburban Stakes.

Trainer John Kimmel said that while he is running Mr. Buff in the Suburban because he has “nowhere else to go,” he doesn’t see why the horse shouldn’t be competitive in the 1 1/4-mile spot.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Bob Baffert tries not to think about last year’s Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap, where McKinzie encountered traffic trouble in the stretch and had to settle for second to Mitole.

“Last year, it was worth $1.2 million, so that’s the part that stung the worst,” Baffert said. “But we don’t worry about that, that’s old news. That’s over with.”