Trainer Genaro Vallejo may have gone against the grain when he put down $12,500 to claim the 10-year-old Cost of Freedom at Golden Gate Fields on April 6 for Battle Born Racing and Nick Ferrara.

The Cee’s Tizzy gelding won his second straight race that day but went to the sidelines for 11 weeks before a last-place finish for $16,000 at Pleasanton on June 29. That was followed by a fifth-place finish as the even-money favorite under Russell Baze in an $8,000 turf sprint at Santa Rosa.

BOSSIER CITY, La. – One would think that with last Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby out of the way, the final two weeks of the Louisiana Downs season would merely be an afterthought. For serious horseplayers, however, the exact opposite may be true.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – If setting a track record is the standard for being back in peak form, then Groupie Doll is up to par, having done so in winning the Presque Isle Downs Masters on Monday night in Pennsylvania.

Groupie Doll returned Tuesday to Churchill Downs “in great shape,” according to trainer Buff Bradley, and attention now shifts to the next two races for the 2012 filly-mare sprint champion, those being the Oct. 5 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland and the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita.

The ninth and final race at Suffolk Downs was canceled Tuesday due to heavy equipment remaining on the main track following a fatal breakdown in the previous race.

The equipment was needed to recover the body of National Hero, an 11-year-old son of El Prado and New England’s champion turf male in 2010-11, who lost jockey Jordano Tunon leaving the gate and broke through the outside rail on the turf course nearing the stretch and fell into the ditch that separates the turf course from the main track.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Paul Attard took a chance by scratching Awesome Overture from Sunday’s $250,000 Presque Isle Mile, with the hope that Friday’s prep for the Durham Cup Stakes would fill. He got his wish when the 1 1/16-mile allowance went with five.

Attard has some familiarity with the Presque Isle Mile, because of the success that his father, Sid, has had in the race. Sid won it last year with Eternal Rule and sent out Stunning Stag to finish third in 2010 and 2011.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trade Storm, invading from England for Sunday’s Woodbine Mile, was settling in here Wednesday morning after arriving in Toronto about 10:30 the previous evening on a flight from Amsterdam.

Trained by David Simcock, the 5-year-old Trade Storm has faced some of Europe’s premier milers this year and adds spice to a Woodbine Mile field headed by defending champion Wise Dan.

Deputy Lass improved dramatically when she stretched out to a middle distance for the first time in a $7,000 conditional claiming race Aug. 23 and looks like the one to beat in a $12,500 claiming race for fillies and mares Friday at Northlands Park. The one-mile race drew seven horses and goes as the second of eight races. Post time for the first race is 6 p.m. Mountain.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As the only allowance of the card, the ninth of 10 races Friday at Churchill Downs will serve as the nominal feature. But it is the preceding race, the last of five maiden races on the day, that’s likely to draw the most attention from serious fans and horseplayers.

That’s because a 2-year-old colt named Kendall’s Boy will make his second career start in the six-furlong race. On Aug. 23 at Saratoga, Kendall’s Boy finished second to the highly touted Havana, who earned an eye-popping 102 Beyer Speed Figure with his 2 3/4-length victory as a 2-5 favorite.

Work All Week led a one-two Midwest Thoroughbreds finish for trainer Roger Brueggemann in the $52,500 Tex’s Zing Stakes, beating stablemate Signsealndeliver by 1 1/4 lengths while cementing his position as the leading Illinois-bred sprinter in training. Work All Week, a 4-year-old homebred gelding by City Zip, now has won six of eight starts overall, and six of seven during 2013, his only loss coming by a nose after he dueled on a hot pace in an Arlington stakes race earlier this summer.

BOSSIER CITY, La. – Got Shades has established himself as the top 2-year-old of the Louisiana Downs meet with wins in the $50,000 Sunny’s Halo last month and the $100,000 Sunday Silence on Saturday. Now, he could be headed to Keeneland, with the long-range goal of making the Breeders’ Cup.

Trainer Danny Pish said Tuesday that Got Shades could make his next start in the Grade 3, $150,000 Bourbon, a 1 1/16-mile turf race at Keeneland on Oct. 6. It is a Win and You’re In for the $1 million BC Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 1.