Six stakes races – three for Thoroughbreds – will be featured during Oak Tree at Pleasanton’s final weekend, two this Saturday and four Sunday.

Thirteen runners, including impressive debut winner Ibelievewewillwin, were nominated to Saturday’s $50,000-added Juan Gonzalez Memorial for 2-year-old fillies at 5 1/2 furlongs. Jeff Bonde has nominated four runners, including Santa Anita winner Later My Love and local winner Marquee Cat.

The $10,000 Jack Robinson for Quarter Horses is also scheduled for Saturday.

Increases in account wagering and out-of-state wagering helped spur a 4.4 percent increase in handle on the track’s races during the recently completed Golden Gate Fields winter-spring meeting. The meeting, which ran from Dec. 26 through June 14, comprised 98 days of racing, one fewer than the 2013-14 meet.

Average daily handle on Golden Gate’s races increased 5.5 percent, to $1,549,620 from $1,468,765 in 2013-14.

Daily average ontrack wagering on Golden Gate’s races dropped 2.6 percent from the last winter-spring meet.

Jack Disney, a former sportswriter, racing publicist, and stakes-winning horse owner, died after a lengthy illness on Monday, his friends said. Disney was 80 and had been in failing health.

The 19-year-old jockey Ricardo Gonzalez is becoming the go-to guy in big races on the Northern California racing circuit.

Gonzalez won the biggest races for older horses at the recently concluded Golden Gate Fields meeting, guiding G. G. Ryder to wins in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile on turf and Grade 3 All American on the main track.

CYPRESS, Calif. – The 1,380-foot stretch at Los Alamitos is the longest in the nation, and can sometimes be a test for more than the horses.

Turning for home, horses have a few strides before they reach the quarter pole, leaving jockeys to judge the appropriate time to ask for maximum run. Opinions differ on the best way to ride the track.

“You have to stay in striking distance,” said jockey Drayden Van Dyke. “It’s hard to make up ground with the long stretch.”

OPELOUSAS, La. – Louisiana’s best are all set to go Saturday at Evangeline Downs for the annual Louisiana Legends Night program. A total of eight stakes restricted to horses bred in the Bayou State will be worth $775,000. All divisions will be represented except for 2-year-olds, who will have center stage to themselves July 11, when the two divisions of the $100,000 D.S. “Shine” Young Futurity will be contested.

CYPRESS, Calif. – The first two weeks of July would seem an ideal time to run a Thoroughbred meeting in Southern California. School is out, the Fourth of July weekend looms, and the weather is fine.

But in early July, the countdown is underway for the start of the Del Mar meeting on July 16, and that threatens to overshadow the eight-day Los Alamitos summer meeting, which begins Thursday.

Wise Dan has begun daily galloping at his home base of Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., as trainer Charlie LoPresti begins thinking about a possible next race for the two-time Horse of the Year.

Wise Dan had been on a 30-day schedule of alternating between jogging and galloping until being cleared last weekend by veterinary staff at the Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital to resume full-blown training on the main track at Keeneland.

Embattled trainer Juan Vazquez has been indefinitely barred from the grounds of Delaware Park.

William Fasy, the president of Delaware Park, confirmed on Monday that Vazquez had been barred from the track as of last Thursday. Fasy declined to give a reason why Vazquez, a three-time leading trainer at Delaware, had been barred.

“Juan Vazquez has been barred from Delaware Park but I have no comment on the reason why,” he said.

Vazquez’s attorney, Alan Pincus, said that he was informed that Vazquez had been banned but was also not given a reason why.

FRANKFORT, KY. - A pair of races for jumpers will be added to the Sept. 5 opening day card at Kentucky Downs, following unanimous approval Monday from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

The $40,000 Sport of Kings Maiden Hurdle for 4-year-old and up steeplechase maidens will be held over 2 1/4 miles on the Kentucky Downs undulating turf course. It will be contested as a non-parimutuel event under the rules of the National Steeplechase Association, and the purse for the race will come from the Kentucky Downs operating account.