SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Leading trainer Christophe Clement will hold a strong hand when he sends out the speedy pair of Pure Sensation and Shekky Shebaz to top Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Troy at 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf at Saratoga. The rest of the field is American Sailor, Chewing Gum, Imprimis, Lonhtwist, and Pulsate.

◗ Defending champ Fools Gold and her stablemate My Sister Nat likewise give trainer Chad Brown a powerful one-two punch in Saturday’s Grade 3 Waya at 1 1/2 miles for fillies and mares on the grass.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Saturday’s Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga lost some of its luster with the news that Guarana and Mia Mischief, the first and second finishers in the Grade 1 Madison last month at Keeneland, would both be bypassing the event.

Del Mar will allow up to four licensed owners per horse to attend the races beginning Friday, an increase from two licensed owners permitted when the program of limited attendance began July 31.

Owners are allowed to attend only on days they have starters. No other spectators are allowed, including non-licensed guests or family members of licensed owners.

The last-place finish by Hard Not to Love in Sunday’s Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes for fillies and mares at Del Mar left trainer John Shirreffs puzzled and unlikely to make race plans for the autumn until his stable returns to Santa Anita in September.

“She’s got me scratching my head right now,” Shirreffs said Wednesday. “I was very surprised. I thought she’d run a good race.”

Indian Peak has been a milestone horse for Northern California-based trainer Quinn Howey this summer.

Indian Peak, who races for owners and breeders William and Jill Gray, gave Howey his first stakes win at Santa Anita in the Snow Chief Stakes for 3-year-old statebreds on June 20. The next objective is Sunday’s Grade 3 La Jolla Handicap for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on turf at Del Mar, which could be the first graded stakes win for Howey, 35.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Six new names are among the 23 separately listed interests in the seventh and final pool in the 2020 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens Friday at noon Eastern for the customary three-day run.

Churchill Downs has never had more than four futures pools since the first were offered in 1999, but these are unprecedented times amid the coronavirus pandemic. The 146th Derby has been postponed from its original May 2 date until Sept. 5, and the Belmont Stakes became the first leg of the Triple Crown when run June 20. The Preakness is set for Oct. 3.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Back on May 2, the day the Kentucky Derby originally was supposed to be run, Art Collector was about 25 miles up the road from Churchill Downs at the Skylight Training Center, having an easy day of training following a half-mile drill the day before, his second recorded work after Tommy Drury took over as his trainer. He would not make his first start of the year until May 17, the day after the Preakness originally would have been run.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The scratch of presumptive favorite Jolie Olimpica from the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap on Saturday at Del Mar clears the way for Beau Recall to win the turf route for a second straight year.

Jolie Olimpica, runner-up in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley on July 11 at Keeneland, was not a certain starter in the Yellow Ribbon anyway, because trainer Richard Mandella suspected she might need more time after shipping back and forth to Kentucky. Wednesday morning, he said the decision was made for him.

WHO’S HOT

Trainer Brad Cox has not ruled out running Factor This back in the Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Turf Cup on Sept. 12, but said this week he is still leaning toward the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic on the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby undercard. Both are $1 million races.

“I’d prefer not to show my hand too much,” Cox said.