ELMONT, N.Y. – Higher Truth, beaten less than a length in three consecutive stakes, will try again to win her first black-type event when she heads a field of eight entered in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Sands Point Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

Higher Truth, an Irish-bred daughter of Galileo trained by Chad Brown, was third, beaten a half-length in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks. She was second, beaten three-quarters of a length in the Saratoga Oaks, and second, beaten a half-length, in the Jockey Club Oaks.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Tom Morley knows about the cyclical nature of training horses, which is why he’s going to enjoy the heck out of the recent run of success his stable has been on the last six weeks.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Trainer Vicki Oliver couldn’t ask for Flippant to be doing any better. Whether or not the gray Tapit filly is good enough to be a serious factor Saturday when putting her three-race win streak on the line in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland, well, that’s a separate matter.

“She’s doing great, training great, breezing really well,” said Oliver. “We’ll just have to see how she matches up with these top fillies.”

Joi Garner, a former top executive with the NBA players’ association’s marketing and licensing company, has been hired as the general counsel for the New York Racing Association, the association announced on Wednesday.

Octane, who captured the final two legs of the open division of the Florida Sire Series including the 1 1/16-mile In Reality by 1 3/4 lengths while earning a 93 Beyer Speed Figure in the process, will bypass the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and await his 3-year-old campaign, according to Brian Cohen, stable manager for owner-breeder Arindel.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Owner-trainer Brandon Greer said Wednesday his Woodbine Mile winner Town Cruise won’t be going to Del Mar for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile after all. He has decided to run him in the Grade 2 Nearctic at Woodbine on Sunday instead.

“We made the decision [Tuesday] night,” Greer said. “We’re a small barn, and it’s a bit too much of an undertaking for us. We’re just not ready for that sort of thing. It has nothing to do with the horse. He’s quite happy these days. He’s been just excellent.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Kevin Attard said Special Forces is being pointed toward the $175,000 Autumn Stakes here Nov. 14 following his 6-1 score in the Grade 3 Durham Cup.

Special Forces captured the Grade 2 Autumn with a career-high 99 Beyer Speed Figure in 2019, after which he missed all of 2020 with a setback. Last Sunday’s Durham Cup was his third start on the comeback trail, for which he got a 97 Beyer after beating a small but select field that included 2019 Belmont Stakes winner Sir Winston and reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Mighty Heart.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Coolmore has done it before. Ten years after an Irish-bred filly named Together wheeled back on six days’ rest to win the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, the worldwide powerhouse stable will give it a go again Saturday.

The 3-year-old filly Empress Josephine, who was beaten just a length for all the money when third Saturday in the Grade 1 First Lady at Keeneland behind the older Chad Brown tandem of Blowout and Regal Glory, will run back a week later as one of the principals in the 38th running of the Grade 1, $500,000 QE II.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Preceding the Grade 2 Jessamine on an eight-race Wednesday card at Keeneland is an $88,000 allowance (race 7) in which Swiftsure will make his first start since finishing far back as the favorite six months ago in the Lexington Stakes.

“He caught a really nasty track in the Lexington and was really jammed up off it, so we gave him some time off afterward,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “He’s a horse that showed a lot of potential his first two starts.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Alex Achard toiled away in anonymity, hoping that his day would come.

Finally, it did.

Achard was still aglow with joy Sunday, less than 24 hours after reaching a milestone he couldn’t be blamed for thinking might never occur. Achard registered the first Grade 1 win of his nascent riding career Saturday, giving a perfect ride to a 5-year-old Brazilian-bred gelding named In Love in a 12-1 upset of the richest race of the Keeneland fall meet, the $750,000 Keeneland Turf Mile.