In the last five years, Robert Gorham has saddled the winner of the Emerald Necklace Stakes at Thistledown three times and been second in the other two renewals. He looks to keep his run of success in this race going with Miz Keeta in Thursday’s edition of the $75,000 Emerald Necklace for Ohio-accredited 2-year-old fillies over six furlongs.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – There are numerous apprentices currently learning their trade at Woodbine, including the runaway leader among them, Sofia Vives, who has mounts in the first seven events on Thursday’s eight-race card.

Vives rides Lake Shore Drive in the opener, a $7,500 sprint for nonwinners of two. Trained by Norm McKnight, Lake Shore Drive missed all of 2022 and has been slow to come around this year. In his improved last race, he benefited from a speed bias when a chalky second in his second try at the bottom level.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Quality of pedigree and quality of competition will be key in evaluating three 2-year-old races that are some of the main events on Thursday’s 10-race card at Keeneland.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – After a front-loaded start to the fall meet, with 11 stakes over three days positioned as ideally timed Breeders’ Cup preps, Keeneland takes a breath and resets. Wednesday’s card starts the rest of this run, the meet running on a Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule, with the exception of the short final week that closes on Saturday, Oct. 28.

The 4-year-old colt Smile Happy, who ran one of the fastest races this year winning the Alysheba Stakes in May, has been getting his mind right at trainer Kenny McPeek’s farm in Florida in preparation for a 2024 campaign.

Smile Happy didn’t race for 10 months after finishing eighth in the 2022 Kentucky Derby. The Alysheba, on May 5, was his third start following the long break and in it Smile Happy made manifest the vast unexpressed reserve of talent he’d hinted at throughout his career, winning by two lengths with an elite 110 Beyer Speed Figure.

Minutes after Lucky Girl finished fourth in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at Del Mar in August, jockey Joe Bravo blamed himself for the loss.

“Joe jumped off the horse and said, ‘I had her too far back and waited too long,’ ” trainer Phil D’Amato recalled Friday.

Lucky Girl had little good fortune at the Del Mar summer meeting, beginning the two-month season with a troubled sixth in the Osunitas Stakes at a mile on turf July 22.

The unbeaten stakes winner Book’em Danno will attempt to transfer his sharp form to turf Sunday when he runs in the Grade 3, $150,000 Futurity at Aqueduct.

The six-furlong race for 2-year-olds carries a “Win and You’re In” berth for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. The Futurity shares a card with the Grade 3 Matron for 2-year-old fillies at six furlongs on the grass.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The extended streak of Breeders’ Cup futility by winners of the Zuma Beach Stakes might someday end. It will take a good horse.

Endlessly is beginning to look like a good horse. But before proclaiming he has a realistic shot next month in the BC Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita, 2-for-2 Endlessly must defeat eight rivals Sunday in the Grade 3 Zuma Beach over the same turf course.

“He’s jumped through all the hoops so far,” said Endlessly’s trainer, Michael McCarthy. “Early on, he seemed like a horse that had a little ability. Plenty of class about him.”

Several of Florida’s first-crop yearling sires, including the hard-knocking Gunnevera, will get a chance for a turn in the spotlight in their adopted home state in the coming week as the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. hosts its October yearling sale.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dean Delivers not only became a graded stakes winner when he captured the Grade 3 Smile Sprint here earlier this summer, he also earned a $30,000 credit toward entry fees for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.

But as tempting as that incentive might be, trainer Michael Yates confirmed Friday that Dean Delivers will bypass the Breeders’ Cup and remain locally where his next objective would likely be the $100,000 Gil Campbell Memorial for Florida-breds going a mile here Oct. 21.