OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Flavien Prat, the reigning Eclipse Award-winning jockey, will be based at Aqueduct this winter, though he will likely do a lot of traveling for weekend stakes.

Prat has typically been based at Santa Anita during the winter, but with his children now attending school, Prat preferred to stay with his family in New York, where he is based for most of the year.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Ways and Means, who has not raced since a dominant victory in the Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses at Saratoga in June, has gotten sick for the second time in the last few months and will not race again this year, trainer Chad Brown said.

An illness kept her out of the Grade 1 Ballerina in August and, after breezing once in late August, she got sick again, Brown said.

“We’re going to rest her and race her next year,” said Brown, who trains Ways and Means for owner Seth Klarman.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Napoleon Solo, a 5 1/4-length debut winner of a six-furlong maiden race at Saratoga on Aug. 8, worked a half-mile in 47.47 seconds Friday morning over the Belmont Park training track in preparation for a start in the Grade 1 Champagne at Aqueduct on Oct. 4.

Napoleon Solo, working by himself after the second renovation break, went in splits of 11.94 and 23.15 seconds before galloping out five furlongs in 1:00.75. It was his second straight bullet work at Belmont following a bullet at Saratoga on Aug. 31.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Despite her fourth-place finish as the favorite in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx on Sept. 20, Scottish Lassie will still be pointed to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar on Nov. 1, trainer Jorge Abreu said Friday.

Scottish Lassie, who won the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks by 15 1/4 lengths on July 20 at Saratoga on the lead, was sixth of seven down the backside in the Cotillion. While Abreu didn’t necessarily want Scottish Lassie on the lead, he wasn’t expecting her to be that far back under Joel Rosario.

Catching Freedom – you remember him. Or do you?

It has been, after all, 18 months since Catching Freedom notched his signature win, in the 2024 Louisiana Derby. A good fourth in the Kentucky Derby, a good third in the Preakness, a tame fourth as the odds-on Ohio Derby favorite, and Catching Freedom was done for his 3-year-old season. His comeback run, on Feb. 15 at Fair Grounds, passed with barely a whisper. Catching Freedom chunked home seventh in the Mineshaft Stakes and in the featured eighth race Sunday at Churchill makes the second start of his 4-year-old year.

After completing a tough slate of graded stakes at Saratoga this summer, Dazzling Move will have her long-awaited chance to shine in the Grade 3, $400,000 Delaware Handicap on Sunday.

“Hopefully, she gets a good position,” said Dazzling Move’s trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr. “She gets back to her best form and she should have a good shot to win it.”

Classic of Course will return from a layoff of nearly four months in a $58,000 allowance for 3-year-olds at Gulfstream Park on Sunday. He will run as a gelding for the first time after three straight starts in stakes company for trainer Patrick Biancone.

“He had a good 2-year-old season, a good spring, and then he started to lose a bit of interest and was a little bit tight,” Biancone said. “We sent him to the farm for 60 days to rest a little bit, and at the same time, we gelded him. He’s back now and we’re preparing for the winter.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Tom Morley won the Gio Ponti Stakes last year with a horse making just his second start on turf and one who went on to become a Grade 3 winner with perhaps bigger things to come.

On Sunday, Morley will seek to win the $150,000 Gio Ponti for a second straight year with a 3-year-old making his second start on turf. If Griffin’s Wharf can reach the heights of Donegal Momentum, Morley will be quite content.