The pandemic summer of 2020 made for an entirely different feel at Ellis Park. Not only were there few fans in the old grandstand at the Henderson, Ky., track, but trainers and jockeys who in prior years would have traveled to Saratoga had no choice but to stay put in Kentucky.

Turf racing has been suspended at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., in order to perform maintenance on the course, officials for the track announced on Thursday.

Rich Glazier, the popular Delaware Park paddock and television host and racing ambassador for better than three decades, passed away Tuesday at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. He was 73.

A veteran of the U. S. Army, Glazier spent 18 months in Vietnam during the war, serving two tours in the intelligence division. A Delaware native and lifelong passionate racing fan, Glazier decided to pursue a career at the racetrack in 1987 after surviving a pair of heart attacks he felt were caused by the stress of his work as an accountant.

The New York Racing Association’s live-racing productions will be broadcast on SNY, a regional sports network, for 15 weekends this year, beginning on Saturday, according to NYRA.

SNY, which is available in seven million homes in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, will broadcast both America’s Day at the Races and Saratoga Live throughout the summer and fall, NYRA said, including eight consecutive weekends during the upcoming Saratoga meet, which starts on July 15. SNY will also broadcast the shows during the fall Belmont Park meet.

The Grade 1 Allen Jerkens Stakes for 3-year-olds at Saratoga on Aug. 28 is a summertime goal for Dr. Schivel, the sharp winner of an allowance race at Santa Anita in his 2021 debut last Friday.

Trainer Mark Glatt said Dr. Schivel could run before then in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes against older horses at six furlongs at Del Mar on July 31, or the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes against 3-year-olds at six furlongs at Saratoga the following day.

Express Train, a Grade 2 winner in January who was third in the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 31, will start in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar on July 17, trainer John Shirreffs said on Wednesday.

Race plans have not been finalized for Midcourt, who won his first start of 2021 in an allowance race at a mile at Santa Anita last Friday for Shirreffs. Both horses are owned by Lee and Susan Searing’s CRK Stables.

At this point, it’s hard to knock the hard-knocking 7-year-old turf sprinter The Critical Way. He’s run five races during 2021, all strong performances, and made short work of six rivals Saturday at Monmouth Park in the $75,000 Get Serious Stakes. The Critical Way, who often has led, pressed the early pace under Paco Lopez before taking over and winning by three lengths, earning a career-best 102 Beyer Speed Figure.

Improving 4-year-old Vigilantes Way came out of her decisive win in the Grade 3 Eatontown Stakes in good shape, trainer Shug McGaughey said, and appears to be a filly on the rise. Vigilantes Way earned a career-best 91 Beyer Speed Figure while winning her first graded race.

Trainer Graham Motion definitely wants to race Mean Mary, who won the New York Stakes at Belmont in her most recent start, in the Beverly D. Stakes on Aug. 14 at Arlington, but he also is toying with an interim race in the Grade 1 United Nations on July 17 at Monmouth.

“It’s a long time to wait for the Beverly D., and we might want to run in the U.N.,” Motion said. “I think I’d just wait for Arlington, though, if we don’t go to Monmouth.”

Trainer Guadalupe Preciado reported Wednesday that unbeaten Chub Wagon is only "50-50" to compete in the Grade 2, $350,000 Princess Rooney Invitational at Gulfstream on July 3 due to a recent illness. 

The 4-year-old daughter of Hey Chub ran her streak to seven with a game victory in the Shine Again Stakes at Pimlico on June 13. She earned a 92 Beyer Speed Figure that afternoon after denying Maryland-bred champion Hello Beautiful following a thrilling stretch drive.