ELMONT, N.Y. – The defection of Maxfield from the Triple Crown trail has prompted the connections of at least one significant 3-year-old to change plans.

Gouverneur Morris, second to Maxfield in last October’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, will bypass the Belmont Stakes on June 20 and instead point to the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes on July 11 at Keeneland.

“That race is now winnable, and we think it would pick that horse’s head up to have a win,” said Barry Irwin, president of Team Valor International, which co-owns Gouverneur Morrs with WinStar Farm.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Mischevious Alex, winner of the Grade 3 Gotham on March 7, worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds Tuesday morning over the main track at Parx Racing. He is preparing for a start in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens on June 20 at Belmont Park.

Servis said he worked Mischevious Alex behind another horse “more than anything to get a good work in him,” he said.

Servis said he wanted Mischevious Alex to have a good gallop-out but the rider had to pull him up shortly past the wire because there was a loose horse on the track at the time.

ELMONT, N.Y. – It would be hard for trainer George Weaver to top what happened last Saturday at Belmont Park, but that doesn’t mean he won’t try.

Weaver, who saddled Vekoma to a dominating 7 1/4-length victory in last Saturday’s Grade 1 Carter Handicap, will send out Point of Honor in this Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont. The Phipps, at 1 1/16 miles, offers a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland in November.

In a year where the events in the world, let alone racing, are dizzying, the Kentucky Derby now has as a top contender in a horse who didn’t even make his debut until the day the final leg of the Triple Crown was supposed to be run.

Los Alamitos has added a day of racing on Thursday, July 2, to its two-week Thoroughbred meeting from June 26 to July 5, although track officials said Wednesday that the plan is tentative.

Racing will be held on a Friday-through-Sunday basis from June 26-28, followed by four days of racing on the final week.

“We’ll try and see what happens,” track vice president Jack Liebau said.

Los Alamitos has submitted a proposal to Orange County health officials asking to conduct racing with spectators as early as Friday.

Since mid-March, Los Alamitos has run its evening mixed meet of Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds without spectators because of the coronavirus outbreak, similar to other tracks around the world.

Track vice president Jack Liebau said Wednesday that Los Alamitos hopes to hear a response before Friday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Maxfield, one of the top contenders for the 146th Kentucky Derby, has been declared out of the Sept. 5 race after exiting a Wednesday breeze at Keeneland with a condylar fracture of his right front cannon bone.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brad Cox held a nice lead atop the local trainer standings when another week of racing began Thursday at Churchill Downs. Uneasy, however, lies the head that wears an unfinished crown.

“We better keep winning races,” Cox said. “We won’t wind up on top if we get shut out the rest of the way.”

Canterbury Park becomes the latest North American racetrack to come back online following the global coronavirus pandemic when it starts a 52-day meeting on Wednesday.

The Shakopee, Minn., track was scheduled to begin racing in early May before COVID-19 slammed into the racing industry and the rest of America. Canterbury managed to open its backstretch May 8 and has attracted a large enough horse population, at least on the Thoroughbred side, to comfortably conduct this abbreviated season, director of racing Andrew Offerman said.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Total all-sources handle for Belmont Park during its opening five-day week was $76,264,891, according to figures provided by the New York Racing Association.

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That included $22,909,717 wagered on Saturday’s 11-race card, despite a two-hour-plus period when NYRABets, the company’s advance-deposit wagering platform, was not working, though bets could still be taken via the app.