Imperative was bred in Kentucky, has spent much of his career in California, and made a living commuting to West Virginia for the Charles Town Classic. On Saturday, he will make his first start in 14 months in the Grade 3 Iselin at Monmouth Park.

Now 8, Imperative was purchased by the Loooch Racing Stables of Ron Paolucci and Imaginary Stables in January 2017. In his three starts since, he won the $400,000 Poseidon on the Pegasus World Cup undercard, ran last in the Santa Anita Handicap, and won the Grade 2, $1.25 million Charles Town Classic for the second time.

The New York Racing Association on Wednesday announced a fall 2018 stakes schedule for Belmont Park encompassing 44 races worth more than $10 million.

Eighteen of the races are graded and seven races are part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Win and You’re In program, through which race winners gain a fees-paid entry plus travel expenses to designated Breeders’ Cup races. Churchill Downs hosts the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 2-3, the first time since 2015 the event has been held outside California, and New York races could play a more prominent role this year.

The last race of the day was over, the race meeting had ended, and the beer cans were emerging rapidly from an ice chest on Sunday.

Light beers, of course. This was the jockeys’ room at Santa Anita, after all.

Geovanni Franco cracked a Coors Light, looked across the room and saw colleague Flavien Prat walking toward the door, riding title at the spring-summer meeting secured.

“Good luck in New York,” Franco said in earnest.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A first stakes starter for a rookie trainer might be cause for a case of nerves. But for Norm Casse, that event is hardly daunting.

In recent years, Casse had daily oversight of such major stars as Tepin, World Approval, and Classic Empire as the top assistant to his father, trainer Mark Casse. So when he sends out Tales of Chaucer in the stakes debut for both the colt and trainer – either Saturday in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor at Churchill Downs or in the restricted Rockville Centre on July 14 at Belmont Park – Casse won’t be shaking in his boots.

Untrapped, most recently a dead-heat runner-up in the May 18 Pimlico Special, had to be euthanized Tuesday from complications of laminitis that followed a bout of colic.

Based for much of his career at Churchill with trainer Steve Asmussen, Untrapped won the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park last fall and was stakes-placed nine times en route to earning $857,005 from 16 starts, all for owner Mike Langford. The Trappe Shot colt was 12th in the 2017 Kentucky Derby.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With live action on the Kentucky circuit shifting Sunday to Ellis Park in western Kentucky, there will be a major focus on 2-year-old racing throughout the summer.

Purses for 2-year-old maiden-specials will be a track-record $42,000, which includes bonuses for registered Kentucky-breds. Most starters are Kentucky-breds. A recent canvassing of historical trends by track publicist Jennie Rees found that 107 horses who raced at Ellis at 2 in the last 20 years (since 1998) have gone on to win a graded race, including 18 in a Grade 1.

Officials at Keeneland Race Course on Tuesday released the stakes schedule for the 17-day fall meet with little change from the status quo, with the notable exception of a 10th Win and You’re In event toward the Breeders’ Cup.

As usual, the meet is front-loaded with key preps toward the Breeders’ Cup, which is set for Nov. 2-3 at Churchill Downs. In all, the stakes schedule comprises 18 races worth nearly $5.6 million.

Delaware Park assistant starter Jesse Kisilewski has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission regarding an incident that occurred in the starting gate prior to the beginning of race 5 on June 14.

Kisilewski, who has been suspended by Delaware Park since the date of the incident, will be reinstated to his position, according to John Mooney, the executive director of racing at Delaware Park.

Since the start of 2016, and until this past Saturday, only 15 horses had earned a triple-digit Beyer Speed Figure over synthetic surfaces in North America. Hotshot Anna became the 16th when she got a 101 Beyer out of her win in the Grade 3 Chicago Handicap, in which she set an Arlington seven-furlong track record of 1:20.93.

Sniper Kitten will be aimed at the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington after hitting the mark in his stakes debut Saturday night at Canterbury Park.