The 2-year-old colt Dazzle d’Oro sent his trainer, Tom Amoss, traveling back in time. Amoss thought about when he first came to Churchill Downs in the early 1990s, and a conversation with the late Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Lynn Whiting.

“He told me if you ever have a horse work five-eighths from the gate in under a minute, you’ve got a runner,” Amoss said.

Dazzle d’Oro, who had breezed through the spring at Keeneland, moved to Churchill and had his first work there June 11, going five-eighths from the gate in 59.80. And, yes, he is a runner.

It’s not only that Percy’s Bar is winning big, but how she’s winning big that makes trainer Ben Colebrook appreciate what the 2-year-old filly already has done and what she might get done the rest of this season.

Percy’s Bar doesn’t fit the mold of many sharp early-season 2-year-olds, who show a lot of speed and might run fast but merely are running more than racing with intention.

While Dorth Vader won the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps for George Weaver on June 6, the veteran trainer would like to forget the rest of June.

During the month, Weaver had barns at Belmont and Saratoga placed under quarantine for separate cases of strangles, a highly contagious disease that affects a horse’s respiratory system. Thankfully, the horses who tested positive seem to be improving.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mindframe, who may have vaulted to the head of a deep older male dirt class with his victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs, arrived back in Saratoga on Monday morning and will be strongly considered for a start in the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney Stakes here Aug. 2, trainer Todd Pletcher said Monday.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The very promising A. P. Kid, runaway winner of the Pennine Ridge at Saratoga just three weeks earlier, was euthanized after suffering an irreparable fracture while working over the Oklahoma turf course on Friday.

A. P. Kid had just entered the stretch when he “took a funny step switching leads,” trainer Todd Pletcher said in explaining what caused the fatal injury.

Trainer John Sadler and Hronis Racing have added the European winners Namaron and Suchet to their stable in advance of the Del Mar summer meeting.

Namaron, a 3-year-old German-bred, was third by three-quarters of a length in the Group 3 Badener Meile at Baden-Baden Racecourse in Germany on May 29. Namaron is by the Shamardal stallion Aramon.

Suchet, a 4-year-old by Cloth of Stars, is a two-time winner in 11 starts who was third in a minor stakes at a mile at Saint-Cloud Racecourse in Paris last November.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Grand Slam Smile won in a different manner in an allowance race on Saturday at Los Alamitos than in her preceding six wins – she fought back after being passed.

In her first start since November, Grand Slam Smile set the early pace, briefly lost her advantage to Ma Rae’s Girl, and then rallied to retake the lead, eventually winning by 2 1/2 lengths.

The style of the win left trainer Sean McCarthy slightly stunned, but delighted.

“I was concerned, put it that way,” McCarthy said.

One Magic Philly will need a career-best race to record an upset win in Saturday’s Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes for female sprinters at Los Alamitos, a field led by national division leader Kopion.

She can do just that, trainer Phil D’Amato said.

“She’s got the talent,” he said. “She has to put it all together.”

Owned and bred by John Gallegos, One Magic Philly has started once this year, finishing third as the even-money favorite in the $125,000 Skipat Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs on May 17 at Pimlico in her first start since late December.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher has been training regularly over the Oklahoma strip since shipping the majority of his stable to Saratoga earlier this spring, but he switched venues on Friday. He worked 13 horses over the main track during the course of the morning, including the Suburban-bound pair of Locked and Antiquarian.

The two horses were a contrast in styles in their final serious preparation for the Grade 2 event next Saturday.