ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Owner-trainer Al Patykewich has been around the racetrack for 47 years and took out his trainer’s license in 1976. Last Saturday, the 64-year-old Patykewich enjoyed his first stakes win when Skylander Girl scored by a going-away three lengths in the My Dear, a five-furlong stakes race for 2-year-old fillies.

It’s a Jerry Hollendorfer quartet of stakes-winning and stakes-placed fillies and mares going against a pair of stakes neophytes in Saturday’s $75,000 California Governor’s Cup Handicap at the California State Fair in Sacramento.

Hollendorfer sends out what looks to be an unbeatable hand with graded stakes winner Via Villaggio, the stakes winners Sister Kat and Cathy’s Crunches, and stakes-placed Lady Aspen.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Cryptic Message will be charting unknown territory Saturday at Woodbine against Ontario-sired 3-year-old filly opposition in the $125,000 Passing Mood Stakes at seven furlongs on the grass. The Passing Mood will be her first start on grass and first at farther than 6 1/2 furlongs.

Cryptic Message had a very productive 2-year-old campaign, during which she won 4 of 5 starts and $340,000. Three of those tallies came in restricted stakes.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Saturday marks another important step in the partnership between the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux community and Canterbury Park as the $125,000 Mystic Lake Mile for 3-years old and up will be run for the first time. The card also includes the $100,000 Lady Canterbury for fillies and mares. Both are one-mile turf races.

Sweet Nectar earned just an average Beyer Speed Figure for her win over Candy Alley in a first-level allowance in her first start at Northlands Park on July 1, and anyone just looking at speed figures might believe she is going to have a hard time moving up in class when she runs in a second-level allowance Saturday.

Praia outran double-digit odds of 45-1 and 11-1 in back-to-back stakes at Churchill Downs this spring but had to settle for second behind the talented Kitten’s Dumplings both times. Without that rival to deal with Saturday, Praia is in a strong position to collect her first stakes victory in the $150,000 Virginia Oaks at Colonial Downs.

The Grade 3 Oaks is among four undercard stakes on a closing-day card topped by the Grade 2, $500,000 Virginia Derby.

The Ontario Racing Commission has approved Fort Erie’s request to cancel three more Monday cards, July 15 through July 29, as a shortage of horses continues to take its toll on the border oval.

“Attempts to fill three cards of racing during the current circumstances could result in horses racing too frequently and increase the risk to the welfare of the equine athletes,” said Rob McKinney, the commission’s acting executive director, in his written reasons for the decision.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Sahara Sky, winner of the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park in May and two other stakes earlier this year, is in light training and could reappear in the $500,000 Forego Stakes at Saratoga on Aug 31, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said.

Last month, Hollendorfer said Sahara Sky could start at Del Mar, but that plan was considered unlikely earlier this week.

“This is the time of year we back up a little bit,” Hollendorfer said. “We were thinking of the Bing Crosby, but I’m not anxious to run in that race.”

Trainer Graham Motion cut his numbers advantage in half by scratching two of the four 3-year-old fillies he entered in Wednesday’s $50,000 Christiana Stakes at Delaware Park. Motion kept the right pair, however, as Joy emerged from a three-way stretch battle with Savvy Hester and Hold Our Destiny to prevail by a length in the one-mile turf race.

It was the second straight turf win and third overall victory in 11 lifetime starts for Joy ($7), ridden for the first time by Matt Rispoli. She ran the distance on a course upgraded from yielding to firm during the card in 1:37.90.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Shug McGaughey said Data Link seems to be improving after showing some negative signs in his right hind leg shortly after his fourth-place finish as the 3-5 favorite in the Poker Stakes on July 4.

At Fair Hill in Maryland to watch Kentucky Derby winner Orb breeze, McGaughey also watched Data Link jog over the dirt surface.

“Today I thought he was pretty good, not altogether perfect, but I feel like he’s getting better,” McGaughey said. “He was a little bit funny in his back right, nothing significant. Maybe he just pulled something.”