A sleepy Friday card at Ellis Park? Not quite.

Friday’s 10-race program (first post 11:50 a.m. Central) offers purses, including Kentucky-bred supplements, worth about $769,000. The card includes three $100,000 maiden special weights, a first-level dirt -sprint allowance, a second-level turf-route allowance, and a basic third-level turf-sprint allowance.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Excellent Truth and She Feels Pretty, separated by a head in the Grade 1 Diana on July 12, will be going their separate ways for their next starts.

Trainer Kenny McPeek would land far down the list of trainers focused on sending out 2-year-old debut winners. The McPeek barn last weekend at Ellis Park sent out two juvenile first-time starters to victory, but it was second-time starter Blackout Time who drew the rave reviews.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Friday’s last event, a one-mile maiden race for 3-year-olds and up on the turf, includes Favorable Scenario, a horse trained by Chad Brown who hasn’t raced since February 2023.

Favorable Scenario has obviously has had his share of issues, but Brown said he has always thought highly of the son of Good Magic. And between himself and owner Seth Klarman, they want to give him another shot at a racing career.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Nitrogen, who will switch surfaces for the second time this season when she runs in the Grade 1 Alabama here Aug. 16, had her final tune-up for that race by working five furlongs in 1:01.92 on Wednesday morning over Saratoga’s main track.

Nitrogen worked in company with the unraced 2-year-old Copa de Plata. After going their first eighth in 13.57 seconds, Nitrogen and her workmate got their last half-mile in 48.35 and their final quarter in 23.53.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Dallas Stewart made the rare decision not to send a stable of horses to Saratoga for the 2025 meet, but he was on the grounds bright and early Wednesday morning to watch his up-and-coming 3-year-old sprinter Smoken Wicked breeze immediately after the racetrack opened for training at 5:30 a.m.

Secret Faith, who picked up the seventh stakes win of her career in a $75,000 division of the Louisiana Stallion Stakes on Aug. 1 at Evangeline Downs, is being considered for a start in the Grade 2, $750,000 Charles Town Oaks, according to trainer Jayde Gelner.

Secret Faith won the Stallion Stakes by 14 3/4 lengths, while covering seven furlongs in 1:23.49. For the effort, Secret Faith equaled her best career Beyer Speed Figure, an 88.

The Remington Park meet opening Friday night will feature a new stakes designed to draw turf sprinters prepping for the Breeders’ Cup, a three-day race week, and an earlier post time.

The 62-date meet runs through Dec. 20.

Remington is opening about a week and a half earlier in a move that accommodates shifting from racing four days per week to three, on Thursdays through Saturdays. The schedule will be in place until December, when the track goes back to a four-day week by adding Wednesdays.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Bring Theband Home, who backed up his victory in the Harvey Pack Stakes here last month with another solid effort winning Sunday’s Grade 2 Troy Stakes, will make one more start before the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. It will come in the Grade 2, $250,000 Nearctic at Woodbine on Oct. 4, trainer Mark Casse said Monday.