LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Since Churchill first began running turf races in 1987, all sprints over the turf course have been at five furlongs. That’s about to change, as the first 5 1/2-furlong turf race will be run here Thursday as the seventh and featured race.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – McCraken will make his next start in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile after exiting a flashy Kentucky Derby Day allowance victory at Churchill Downs in good order.

Making his first start in more than six months, McCraken swept from last to first in the one-mile allowance and earned a 95 Beyer Speed Figure, tying a career high. Trainer Ian Wilkes is intent on more races at or around a mile in hoping the 4-year-old colt will prove worthy of a berth in the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Tijori is being pointed to a stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Belmont Park following a striking win in her debut last Friday at Santa Anita, although a trip to Royal Ascot is still a possibility.

Trainer Simon Callaghan said he is leaning toward starting Tijori in the $150,000 Astoria Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs at Belmont Park on June 7 instead of the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at five furlongs on turf at Royal Ascot on June 20. The Queen Mary Stakes has a purse of approximately $148,500.

ARCADIA, Calif. – What a View is unlikely to try for a repeat victory in the $100,000 Crystal Water Stakes for California-bred turf milers at Santa Anita on Sunday.

Trainer Kenny Black said on Sunday that he is leaning toward starting the 7-year-old What a View in the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes, a $200,000 race at 1 1/4 miles on turf May 26, with the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on turf May 28 a less likely option.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Fault, a winner of three graded stakes at Santa Anita this year, will be sent to Belmont Park for the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes, to be run on June 9, trainer Phil D’Amato said on Sunday.

Fault won the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes at 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares at Santa Anita on May 6. Following that race, D’Amato said he was leaning toward the $700,000 Ogden Phipps for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles instead of the Grade 1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita on June 2, and on Sunday he confirmed that was the plan.

Trainer Jorge Navarro tied his own record for the most wins on a Monmouth Park card Sunday when he won five races.

Navarro sent out the winners of races 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8 on the 11-race card. In all, Navarro sent out nine horses in seven races. Navarro's winners were Aztec Sense ($2.80), Be a Hero ($3.40), Indian Guide ($4), Terry's Charm ($2.80), and Indian Chaser ($7).

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Doug O’Neill said that when it comes to preparing for the Belmont Stakes, he will take a different approach with Blended Citizen than he did six years ago with I’ll Have Another, who was injured and scratched from the race one day before he was to make a bid for the Triple Crown.

I’ll Have Another put in strong daily 1 1/2-mile gallops after arriving in New York following the Preakness, and they apparently took their toll, as he was diagnosed with a tendon injury the day before the Belmont Stakes and was subsequently retired.

In this age of reduced foal crops and shrinking field size, the Maryland Jockey Club racing office outdid itself for the Friday card at Pimlico, which is topped by the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan and Grade 3 Pimlico Special and includes five other stakes.

The 14-race program starts at 11:30 a.m. Eastern and is loaded from top to bottom. A total of 151 horses, an average of more than 10 per race, could go postward.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The two sprint stakes for 3-year-olds run at Santa Anita on Saturday may turn out to be preps for major stakes at Belmont Park on June 9 more than graded stakes in Southern California later that month.

Kanthaka won the Grade 3 Laz Barrera Stakes at seven furlongs for his second stakes win around one turn this year. On Sunday, Terry Finley, the chief executive of the West Point Thoroughbreds partnership that owns the colt, said Kanthaka is being considered for the Grade 2 Woody Stephens Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs at Belmont Park on June 9.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The rematch is set.

Good Magic, second to Justify in the Kentucky Derby on May 5, will take on that rival again in Saturday’s $1.5 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. Trainer Chad Brown, who had been hinting at running Good Magic in the Preakness since Thursday, confirmed him as a starter on Sunday after the colt galloped 1 3/8 miles over Belmont Park’s main track.