Red King, winner of the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap on Aug. 22, will have his next start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 7 at Keeneland and will not start in the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship on Sept. 26 at Santa Anita, trainer Phil D’Amato said over the weekend.

Red King earned a fees-paid berth to the BC Turf with his win in the Del Mar Handicap.

“We’re going to train up to the Breeders’ Cup with him,” D’Amato said. “We’ll take him to Keeneland a month early, and he can breeze over that turf course.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tom’s d’Etat was sent through his first breeze since his third-place finish in the Aug. 1 Whitney when going a solo half-mile in 50.80 seconds before dawn Monday at Churchill Downs. Miguel Mena was up.

“All good, very good,” trainer Al Stall Jr. said. “A long journey starts with the first step. The time between the Whitney and getting him back on a regular breeze schedule was strictly by design. I’m extremely happy with how he’s been doing.”

FRANKLIN, Ky. – Mark Casse had never been to Kentucky Downs for a live day of racing while the Queen’s Plate was being run at Woodbine, his longtime stomping grounds.

Of course, never had anybody else, given that the Queen’s Plate is usually run in early summer and Kentucky Downs always runs in September. This is the year of the coronavirus, and altered racing schedules often lead horsemen such as Casse to wonder what month it is and why they are where they are.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The two-day Breeders’ Cup event scheduled for Nov. 6-7 at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Ky., will be held spectator-free this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organization announced on Saturday night, and purse increases that were slated to go into effect this year will no longer be implemented.

FRANKLIN, Ky. – Winning favorites kicked off the stakes action Saturday at Kentucky Downs when Regal Glory and Got Stormy captured back-to-back Grade 3 races for fillies and mares during the richest card of the 2020 Runhappy meet.

Because of steady rain that began about an hour before the first of five straight stakes were run, the course was downgraded to yielding beginning with the first of those, the Ladies’ Turf, then to soft for the Ladies’ Sprint.

Regal Glory ($4.80) in Ladies’ Turf

The 5-year-old mare Magical has been one of the best horses in the world for nearly two years now, since she gave mighty Enable a real challenge in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Turf, and on Saturday at Leopardstown she beat the highest-rated horse in the world, Ghaiyyath, by three-quarters of a length in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes.

Ghaiyyath had buried Magical by three lengths in the Juddmonte International this summer, but Saturday at Leopardstown trainer Aidan O’Brien instructed jockey Seamie Heffernan to run with Ghaiyyath.

When all the analyzing of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint gets under way, there can be little doubt that one of the preps to draw the closest scrutiny will be a race they’ll run Saturday at Kentucky Downs.

Indeed, many of the top legitimate prospects for the Nov. 7 BC Turf Sprint at Keeneland are entered in the Grade 3, $700,000 Runhappy Turf Sprint, the only BC Win and You’re In event of the Kentucky Downs season.

Ghaiyyath is taking his talents to Ireland this weekend, and what he already has done in Dubai and England this year – crunch all competition – he’ll be widely expected to do in his first trip to the Emerald Isle.

Eclipse Award champions Monomoy Girl, Midnight Bisou, and Uni will be offered for sale at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale the evening of Nov. 8. The sale is set for one day after all three champions may start at the Breeders' Cup at nearby Keeneland, with a compelling rematch between Monomoy Girl and Midnight Bisou a possible headliner.

The three mares, who race for partnerships that share some common threads, will all be consigned by Elite Sales, as agent.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Dr. Schivel on Tuesday made the walk from the barn of his original trainer, Luis Mendez, over to the far northeast corner of the stable area at Del Mar, where Mark Glatt is based. Glatt now takes over as the trainer of the newly minted Grade 1 winner of the Runhappy Del Mar Futurity on Monday, and in coming weeks will map out a plan to get him to his main goal this fall, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 6 at Keeneland.

It's not impossible that the Juvenile will be the first start for Glatt.