SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With 13 races on the card, there will be a slight tweak to the wagering menu for Saturday’s Travers Day program.

There will be three pick-four wagers on the program, starting with races 2, 8, and 10. The pick four that begins with race 8 comprises the Ballerina, Forego, Sword Dancer, and Travers. The pool for that pick four is guaranteed at $1 million.

The pick six begins on race 6, so it won’t be the final six races on the card, and will consist of all Grade 1 stakes races, starting with the H. Allen Jerkens and concluding with the Travers.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Endorsed, arguably the most impressive 2-year-old maiden-winning colt this meet, will point to the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont Park on Oct. 6, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Wednesday.

Endorsed, a son of Medaglia d’Oro out of the Grade 1-winning mare Dance Card, ran down Ahead of Plan to win by a head last Saturday. He ran six furlongs in 1:11.22 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 89.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Hofburg, who was kept out of this Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers due to a temperature, still had not returned to the track as of Wednesday, trainer Bill Mott said.

Mott’s options for Hofburg include the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby against 3-year-olds going 1 1/8 miles at Parx on Sept. 22 or the Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup, against 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/4 miles at Belmont Park on Sept. 29.

“A mile and a quarter is interesting,” Mott said.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Voodoo Song isn’t finished with Saratoga just yet.

The popular New York-bred, who won the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap here on Aug. 11, will make his next start in the Grade 2, $250,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap here on Sept. 3, trainer Linda Rice said Wednesday.

Voodoo Song is 5 for 5 at Saratoga, having won all four of his starts here last year, including the Grade 3 Saranac on the second-to-last day of the meet.

The stewards at Gulfstream Park on Wednesday handed Tony Maragh a 60-day suspension and $1,000 fine in the wake of the jockey’s controversial ride aboard Musical Heart, the runner-up in the fourth race Sunday at the South Florida track.

Remington Park will open one of its most significant meets ever on Friday night in Oklahoma City.

The track will be celebrating its 30th birthday throughout the season. Purses have increased over the corresponding meet in 2017. And, the stakes schedule, led by the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby, has a second graded race for the first time in track history in the Grade 3, $200,000 Remington Park Oaks.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Two-time stakes winner Spiced Perfection finished a quiet fourth as the favorite in the Fleet Treat Stakes for California-bred 3-year-old fillies on July 29. The loss was a surprise for owner Dare to Dream Stable and trainer Brian Koriner and has led to relaunch of Spiced Perfection’s campaign Friday.

Spiced Perfection runs in an allowance race with a $40,000 claiming option at six furlongs against open company in Friday’s sixth race.

“There is nowhere else to go,” Koriner said.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Mario Gutierrez has been booked to ride Battle of Midway in Saturday’s Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs at Del Mar, the first start of 2018 for the 4-year-old colt who was a failure at stud earlier this year.

The $200,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes will be Battle of Midway’s first race since he won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile here last November. Battle of Midway was sent to stud in Kentucky last winter, but was put back in training in the spring when he was found to be subfertile.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As the Ellis Park meet winds down, Kentucky horsemen are marking their condition books for upcoming meets at Kentucky Downs and Churchill Downs.

Horse racing at state and county fairs used to be commonplace and remains part of the culture in certain regions of the country. But on the East Coast, Timonium is the last of the Mohicans.

The Maryland State Fair in Timonium, which begins a seven-day run Friday, will race three days this week and then Friday through the Labor Day holiday next week. In addition to its annual fair meet, Timonium is home to a year-round offtrack betting parlor and is the site of three Fasig-Tipton horse sales.