Trainer Butch Reid entered three juveniles in the $100,000 Pennsylvania Nursery Stakes on Wednesday at Parx Racing, casting a long shadow in the statebred field of eight. The trainer’s best shot could be Flyin Hawaiian, who will make his first start as a gelding after finishing well behind in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga in September.

“He was a handful in the paddock, got a little washy on us,” Reid said. “So he’s since been castrated since that start. His first try as a gelding, and he’s been training up for it beautifully.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – There Goes Harvard, best known for winning the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita in 2022, has resumed training for an 8-year-old campaign in 2026.

Trainer Steve Asmussen has a chance to pick up some Black Friday shopping money on Wednesday afternoon with Way Beyond in the $100,000 Jean Lafitte at Delta Downs – and so do horseplayers on a card featuring a reduced takeout of 10 percent on all wagers.

“We need it to buy Christmas presents,” Asmussen quipped.

The Wednesday card is the second of six in which Delta is offering the reduced takeout. It also will be available on Dec. 22-23 and Dec. 29-30. The cards all have a special afternoon post, with the program Wednesday beginning at 12:55 p.m. Central.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The recent turf stakes winners Conducted and Gold Phoenix will miss stakes opportunities at Del Mar and Los Alamitos in the coming days and weeks in favor of races at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.

Conducted won the $201,500 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes at a mile on turf on Oct. 31 at Del Mar and is likely to have his next start in the $100,000 Eddie Logan Stakes at a mile on turf for 2-year-olds on Dec. 28 at Santa Anita.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The Grade 1 Hollywood Derby on Saturday at Del Mar arrives at the right time for Tempus Volat. Since late summer, the improving colt has won twice on turf at Del Mar in one-mile races – a maiden race on Aug. 30 and the restricted Let It Ride Stakes on Oct. 30.

The $300,000 Hollywood Derby is a much tougher assignment. Tempus Volat, owned by John Sondereker and trained by Leonard Powell, must beat the graded stakes winner Test Score and the stakes winners Salamis and Tom’s Magic in a field of nine.

Tempus Volat deserves a chance, Powell said.

Trainers Joe Sharp and Brad Cox have won this year’s first two meet training titles at Churchill Downs, and Cox leads their rubber match entering the final week of the November meet. The bad news for Sharp is that he can only win the $300,000 Cardinal Stakes once on Thursday. The good news is that he has plenty of shots to do it.

Sharp has four entrants for four different owners in the 1 1/8-mile Cardinal, which is for fillies and mares on the turf. Miwa, Stylish Sue, and Vive Veuve have made the main body of 12 starters, while Sabalenka is the first also-eligible.

Giocoso has found his best stride in 3-year-old turf stakes this summer and fall and scored his second graded stakes win in this division on Saturday evening at Churchill Downs. But trainer Keith Desormeaux hopes to show the strapping colt’s versatility in the coming year, with new goals to reach for.

“We’d like to get a graded stakes on dirt – that’s the next goal,” Desormeaux said post-race, after Giocoso edged Chapman’s Peak to win the Grade 3 Commonwealth Turf on Saturday.

Sweet Nola has proven to be quite the productive claim for owner-trainer Juan Arriagada.

Haltered for $6,250 in February, Sweet Nola has six wins and three seconds from nine starts since and has earned $117,380 for Arriagada. While the last three wins in this run have come over the synthetic surface at Presque Isle Downs, the first three came on the dirt at Tampa Bay Downs, where on Wednesday Sweet Nola looms a short-priced favorite in a starter allowance for fillies and mares going seven furlongs that serves as the feature on the nine-race card.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Philip Banks, the fastest 3-year-old at Woodbine, should take some catching in Thursday’s feature, a nonwinners-of-three sprint for Ontario-sired allowance types and $40,000 claimers.

Philip Banks has started four times for trainer Tony Gattellaro, who co-owns and bred the gelded son of the superb turf sire Silent Name. After ending up fourth when debuting in the restricted Lake Superior Stakes on July 27, he graduated impressively in another six-furlong main turf sprint Aug. 10, for which he got an 87 Beyer Speed Figure.