Gulfstream Park’s Princess Rooney Invitational, a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race and a fixture on the South Florida circuit since 1985, has been cancelled this season, another victim of the Covid-19 pandemic.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Ricardo Santana Jr. will ride Midnight Bisou in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga, said Jeff Bloom, president of the Bloom Racing Stable partnership that owns the mare, on Sunday.

Regular jockey Mike Smith will be unable to ride the 2019 champion older female due to COVID-19-related restrictions on movement of riders at Del Mar, where Smith is based, and Saratoga.

“He’s been working her pretty much every week, he worked her prior to the Fleur de Lis, she’s familiar with him,” Bloom said.

Colonial Downs has postponed its opening-day card on Monday due to a forecast for excessive heat.

With forecasts calling for a heat index greater than 100 degrees on Monday, the track has canceled Monday’s card and will start its 18-date season with a nine-race card on Tuesday.

Tuesday’s card features a pair of stakes for Virginia-bred 2-year-olds – the Hansel and the White Oak Farm for fillies. First post on Tuesday will be 5:30 p.m. Eastern.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Led by Santa Anita Derby winner Honor A. P., a trio of prospects for next Saturday’s Shared Belief Stakes all worked Saturday at Del Mar during a busy morning that saw 195 horses record drills, including important preps by the older horse Improbable, the terrific 3-year-old sprinter Collusion Illusion, and the older mare Ollie’s Candy.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Shortly after Tiz the Law breezed on Saturday at Saratoga, fellow New York-bred millionaire Mr. Buff worked five furlongs in 1:01.44 in preparation for a start in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Whitney Stakes.

Mr. Buff, under Junior Alvarado, worked in company with the 3-year-old Famished, the pair getting their last quarter in 24.17 and galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.20.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It was another picture-perfect morning in Saratoga on Saturday both in the weather department and for leading 3-year-old Tiz the Law, who put in another solid workout over the main track in preparation for the Grade 1, $1 million Runhappy Travers on Aug. 8.

There are five stakes at Del Mar from next Friday through Sunday, including races with ramifications for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on Sept. 5 and the Breeders’ Cup Saturday program at Keeneland on Nov. 7.

For the first time, Del Mar is hosting a Kentucky Derby prep, the $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes at 1 1/16 miles next Saturday. The race is typically run in late August, but was moved forward to the start of the month this year after the Kentucky Derby was postponed from its traditional spot in early May because of the coronavirus pandemic.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It was only a maiden $20,000 claiming race, but Luis Saez was excited to climb aboard the back of 20-1 shot Vitanza for Friday’s first race at Saratoga.

“It was exciting,” said Saez, who finished fourth on the 4-year-old filly. “I feel like when I was an apprentice and I rode my first race.”

Saez would get his first winner of the meet in the eighth race Friday when he guided Cerretalto ($11.20) to victory in an allowance race for James Bond.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Rushing Fall, who has won Grade 1 stakes four consecutive years with her victory in the Jenny Wiley on July 11 at Keeneland, worked a half-mile in 49.72 seconds over the Oklahoma turf course Friday morning. She worked in company with Altea, who dead-heated for fourth in the Jenny Wiley.

Trainer Chad Brown said the Grade 1 Diana, a 1 1/8-mile turf race here Aug. 23, is a possible spot for Rushing Fall.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Owing to a prior commitment, Joel Rosario wasn’t aboard Tom’s d’Etat when he came within .02 of a second of a 21-year-old track record winning the Grade 2 Stephen Foster Stakes on June 27 at Churchill Downs.

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