Jockey Jamie Theriot, who teamed with trainer Bret Calhoun for a Breeders’ Cup double in 2010, will join forces with Calhoun at Louisiana Downs on Saturday, when he rides Louies Flower in the $100,000 Prelude. The race is the local prep for the Grade 2, $400,000 Super Derby. It also is the lone open-company stakes on a card of nine restricted stakes worth a cumulative $700,000.

Gold Appointment has been scratched from Saturday’s Grade 2 West Virginia Derby by trainer Robert Rockwell, who was unaware that new medication rules went into effect in West Virginia on July 9.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher has enjoyed too much success at Saratoga to lament the ones that got away. One can forgive him, however, for still agonizing over last year’s Travers, in which Palace Malice stumbled at the start, was last early, and rallied to finish fourth, beaten three-quarters of a length by Will Take Charge.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Even though he has won five times in 20 starts, a respectable record, Passing Game seems to always get passed over by bettors. That’s just fine with his trainer, Gary Sherlock, who isn’t shy about backing Passing Game at the windows and has cashed all five times he has won – at odds of 20-1, 39-1, 10-1, 36-1, and, here last time out July 17, at 30-1.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Amir Cedeno was injured Tuesday morning at Del Mar when the 3-year-old colt Eddie’s First inexplicably collapsed just past the finish line during a routine training gallop, pinning Cedeno under the horse until assistance arrived.

Once freed, Cedeno complained of pain in his shoulder and was taken to Scripps La Jolla Hospital to be evaluated.

Candy Boy’s second season begins in earnest Saturday – and it’s going to involve some travel.

With no major main-track stakes for 3-year-olds left in California, Candy Boy will hit the road to compete in the Grade 2, $750,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park. If things go according to plan, he could rack up additional frequent-flier miles over the next few months.

“The plan is to stay on dirt in these big races for 3-year-olds,” trainer John Sadler said.

Scott Blasi returned to work for trainer Steve Asmussen at Saratoga on Tuesday, four months after the longtime assistant was fired for inappropriate behavior detailed in a video released by the activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

“It’s great to be back doing what I love,” Blasi said.

“He makes us better,” Asmussen said. “I’m better with him. He’s done a lot of good for us in 18 years.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After Mother Nature put a damper on the final two days of the second week, Saratoga’s all-sources handle is down 9.1 percent through the first 10 days of the meet compared with the same period last year. However, ontrack handle is basically neck-and-neck with last year, while attendance is up 4.2 percent.

The meeting began July 18 and runs through Sept. 1.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Story to Tell has romped around Del Mar with such ease in recent mornings that trainer Dan Hendricks is confident going into Sunday’s $200,000 Best Pal Stakes. Story to Tell won the W.L. Proctor Stakes at Los Alamitos on July 13, and Hendricks wants to try for another stakes win before the division swells with recent maiden-race winners.

“We’ll get it before the others catch up,” Hendricks said. “There will be new ones coming out of the woodwork every week.”

Perhaps it is the owners and trainers of other 2-year-olds who should fear Story to Tell.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Rick Violette said Tuesday that surgery to repair small stress fractures in Samraat’s right cannon bone went well, and that he expects the multiple Grade 3 winner to be back in his barn at Saratoga within the next 48 hours. Samraat was injured while preparing for last Saturday’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy.