ELMONT, N.Y. – At least one champion is planning to run in Saratoga Springs this summer.

Judy the Beauty, last year’s champion filly and mare sprinter, is expected to make her next start in the Grade 2, $200,000 Honorable Miss Handicap at Saratoga on July 29, trainer Wesley Ward said. The Honorable Miss is the local prep for the Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina at Saratoga on Aug. 29.

ELMONT, N.Y. – After Willet won the Interborough Stakes on New Year’s Day, trainer and part-owner Jimmy Iselin said it more than likely would be the end of her career.

But Iselin could not let go, and five months later, the 7-year-old New York-bred mare is working toward a return, probably in the $100,000 Dancin Renee Stakes for statebreds on June 28. Willet, a five-time stakes winner who still is searching for her first graded win, has worked three times, including a seven-furlong move in 1:26.63 on June 9 at Aqueduct.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The future appears to be bright for Bluegrass Angus, who rocketed to the head of the class of the local 3-year-old division with an impressive 6 1/4-length romp in the River Rock Casino last Saturday.

He was coming off a runner-up finish in the Jim Coleman Province after being almost out of control in the paddock and then completely washed out in the post parade.

Trainer Craig MacPherson was relieved when Bluegrass Angus was much better behaved in the paddock in the River Rock.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Kobe’s Back, the three-time stakes winner who finished sixth in the $1.25 million Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park on June 6, is unlikely to start again until late summer.

Trainer Peter Eurton said he considers the 4-year-old Kobe’s Back a candidate for the $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs on Aug. 22 at Del Mar instead of the $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs there July 26.

“We’ll probably point for the Pat O’Brien,” Eurton said. “I don’t want to shorten him up too much to go in the early sprint, but that could change.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Dortmund was a tired colt after a fourth-place finish behind American Pharoah in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 16. The performance was enough of a disappointment for trainer Bob Baffert to call for a vacation for the winner of the $1 million Santa Anita Derby in April who also was third May 2 in the Kentucky Derby.

Wise Dan had his first gallop over the main track at Keeneland since returning from his ankle injury when the two-time Horse of the Year went a full circuit Thursday at the Lexington, KY., track.

“Everything’s looking really good,” trainer Charlie LoPresti said. “We’re still alternating days between jogging and galloping, but yeah, this was his first time back to the big track. We had been keeping him [at the training track] until this.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Calvin Borel always takes every December off, but this year, he’s taking most of the summer off – and even more time if he feels like it.

Circumstances are changing in the life and career of the 48-year-old jockey, whose three Kentucky Derby victories are the most compelling reasons he was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in August 2013 and has achieved folk-hero status among thousands of racing fans.

Enriched by off-season revenues accrued from Instant Racing machines, purses at the five-day September meet at Kentucky Downs are expected to be worth a record $7.5 million, officials at the south-central Kentucky track announced Friday.

Twelve stakes will be run at the meet, to be conducted Sept. 5, 10, 12, 16, and 19, with the richest being the Grade 3, $600,000 Kentucky Turf Cup on Sept. 12. Including bonuses from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, purses for maiden-special races will be worth $120,000, and allowance races will be worth as much as $130,000.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In his first day back training as a newly minted Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah went out for a routine jog Friday at Churchill Downs shortly after 7 a.m. Eastern, much to the satisfaction of his Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.

Exercise rider Jorge Alvarez was aboard American Pharoah for the one-mile, clockwise jog around a fast track. The exercise took all of eight minutes.

A Massachusetts horse trainer on Thursday urged the state’s gambling commission to reject a plan by Suffolk Downs and the state’s horsemen’s organization to run a three-day meet at the track this summer, saying the meet would not benefit the Massachusetts horse industry, according to media reports.