Beholder, the two-time champion who was fourth in the $1 million Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park on June 7, has resumed light training after recovering from a pastern injury.

Trainer Richard Mandella said Beholder was ponied over the weekend, her first significant exercise in a month.
“In a couple of days, she’ll start galloping,” he said.

Owned by B. Wayne Hughes, Beholder finished a length behind winner Close Hatches in the Phipps Stakes. She emerged from the race with a pastern injury that Mandella assumed occurred when she was struck by the hoof of a rival.

CYPRESS, Calif. - Apprentice jockey Drayden Van Dyke won four consecutive races Sunday at Los Alamitos to move into a tie for the lead in the jockeys’ standings with Joe Talamo. Both riders have five wins at the meeting.

On Thursday, Van Dyke has six mounts on the eight-race program, while Talamo does not ride. Talamo is back in action Friday.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The burning question as to whether the brilliant 3-year-old filly Untapable will take on males in her next start will remain unanswered for the time being, trainer Steve Asmussen said Tuesday at Saratoga.

Asmussen, who arrived in town Monday, has nominated Untapable to the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks here July 20. Asmussen said he, owner Ron Winchell, and his racing manager, David Fiske, also are considering running Untapable against the boys in the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park one week later.

Roger Stein, who made the transition from top harness trainer to Thoroughbreds, won the final race of his training career when he sent out Cleverly Beverly to win a $25,000 maiden-claiming race Sunday at the Oak Tree at Pleasanton meeting.

Stein, 60, has been fighting an incapacitating form of nerve damage called advanced peripheral neuropathy which has been affecting his feet and fingers for the past five years.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Clearly Now, who set a track record for seven furlongs of 1:19.96 winning Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Belmont Sprint Championship by 6 1/4 lengths, will be pointed to the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga on Aug. 30, trainer Brian Lynch said Sunday. The Forego, like the Belmont Sprint, is run at seven furlongs.

“Certainly the Forego is the next spot for him,” Lynch said by phone from Canada. “That’ll probably be spot on for him. Then we’ll take it from there.”

ELMONT, N.Y. - The Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational was formerly known as the Garden City, so when Minorette won it on Saturday it essentially gave trainer Chad Brown his third consecutive victory in this race. Alterite, who won the Garden City last year, is getting closer to her 4-year-old debut.

On Monday, Alterite worked five furlongs in 1:00.95 over the Oklahoma turf course at Saratoga and could be ready to run in the Grade 1 Diana on July 19, Brown said.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Usually, when a first-time starter wins a stakes race by 14 1/2 lengths, it’s something to crow about. But trainer Leah Gyarmati said she is not going to get too excited after Wonder Gal won Sunday’s $125,000 Lynbrook Stakes for New York-bred juvenile fillies by that margin.

Four of the six horses in the Lynbrook were maidens, one of whom scratched at the gate. Still, Wonder Gal made an eye-catching move around the far turn and galloped home under a hand ride from jockey Taylor Rice.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Cross Traffic has had a setback in his attempt to return to the races.

Trainer Todd Pletcher said that Cross Traffic injured a splint bone in a foreleg, and that has kept him off the work tab since early June. The injury forced Cross Traffic to miss a planned late June comeback on his way to the Grade 1 Whitney, a race that he won last year.

“He popped a splint,” Pletcher said. “Hopefully, he’ll be back on the work tab this weekend.”

As for future plans, Pletcher said, “We’re taking it as it comes.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There is little doubt the Saratoga racing season is just around the corner after watching wave after wave of horses trained by Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown turn in works here Monday morning. With the meet opening a week from Friday, clockers on the main track, training track, and turf course timed over 200 workouts here Monday.

Between them, Pletcher and Brown worked 60 horses over the main track and turf course on Monday, including the Pletcher-trained Palace Malice, who breezed an easy half-mile for the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap on Aug. 2.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse won his first Queen’s Plate when Lexie Lou became the sixth filly to record the Woodbine Oaks-Queen’s Plate double at Woodbine on Sunday.

Emotions overwhelmed Casse, a six-time Sovereign Award winner, and his family following the race.

“It’ll probably sink in a little more later on,” he said. “It was very emotional. My son Colby just started crying afterwards, and to see it mean that much to him, it got me crying.”