VANCOUVER, British Columbia – If trainer Craig MacPherson has his way, Day Raider will be making his next start in the Grade 3 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park on Aug. 25. The four-turn 1 3/8-mile race just had its purse boosted from $150,000 to $200,000.

Day Raider ran like a horse who will thrive going around four turns when he won the $50,000 Sir Winston Churchill Derby Trial at Hastings on Monday. With Antonio Reyes aboard, the Kentucky-bred son of New Year’s Day trailed the field early before finishing with a flourish to win the 1 1/16-mile race by 1 1/4 lengths in 1:44.80.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – This side of Chad – the Thoroughbred trainer whose gross domestic product might have exceeded that of the African nation by now – there are a few horses who will be given a legitimate chance by horseplayers Saturday to win the 29th Beverly D. at Arlington Park.

Finally, luck was on Jason Barkley’s side. The 29-year-old trainer ended a frustrating drought Sunday at Ellis when Shaun Bridgmohan guided Katie’s Reward to victory in a $16,000 claiming race over Jemrose, a late-running filly trained by Jeff Barkley, Jason’s father.

“If Jemrose doesn’t steady in the turn, Pops may have beat me,” Barkley said with a laugh.

And now for their next trick at Ellis Park, trainer Brad Cox and jockey Shaun Bridgmohan will try to win the track’s annual showcase. They’ll team Sunday with Pinch Hit, one of the likely favorites for the Grade 3, $100,000 Groupie Doll, the lone graded race of the 30-day meet at the western Kentucky track.

Pinch Hit, a 4-year-old Klein family homebred, is one of about seven or eight fillies and mares expected to be entered Thursday for the one-mile Groupie Doll. Other top prospects include Champagne Problems, Jenda’s Agenda, Mines and Magic, and Pacific Pink.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Corey Nakatani will undergo back surgery within two weeks and will be sidelined for two months following an accident on Saturday at Del Mar, his son and agent, Matt Nakatani, said Tuesday.

“He has a herniated disc that’s up against the spinal cord,” Matt Nakatani said. “He needs this to get back to normal.”

Matt Nakatani said much of the surgery is “to go in and clean up a previous injury.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – Tijori won an early season maiden race for 2-year-old fillies as if she was going to be one of the leaders of the division this year, but a subsequent trip to New York did not work out as well as hoped, and she did not train satisfactorily since arriving at Del Mar, so she has been turned out for a freshening, trainer Simon Callaghan said.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The closing-day Del Mar Futurity is very much in the picture for Sigalert, who weaved his way through traffic to win first time out Saturday for trainer John Sadler.

“He didn’t strike me as a speedy, speedy type of colt in his works,” Sadler said of Sigalert, who is by Street Sense, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. “I think he’s a horse who wants to route.”

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Brian Lynch hoped Oscar Performance would draw somewhere in the middle of the field for Saturday’s Arlington Million. That didn’t work out so well, but Oscar Performance still looks like the horse to beat in the 36th running of the Million.

Trainer Chris Block will start Captivating Moon in blinkers when he races Saturday in the Grade 1 Secretariat after Captivating Moon had his first work in the equipment Sunday, going a half-mile on Polytrack in 48 seconds. Block said he galloped Captivating Moon in the hood for about a week before Carlos Marquez worked the colt in his new headgear.

“I thought he was a little more involved in the work from the beginning,” Block said. “Carlos thought he finished it off really well.”

When jockey Jose Valdivia got his chance to break out of some serious career doldrums a little more than three years ago he took hold of it – and Valdivia still hasn’t loosened his grip.