Accelerate outran his 42-1 odds when third behind Tamarkuz and Gun Runner in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. He’ll be considered a prime player when the Grade 1, $1 million race is renewed Nov. 3 at Del Mar.

Ultima D won for the first time in her fourth career start in the $348,000 Juvenile Fillies Stakes on Sept. 6 at Kentucky Downs. The win changed the filly, trainer Wesley Ward said Wednesday.

“The last race put a lightbulb on her,” Ward said.

Elate ships from New York to California next week to complete preparation for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, a race in which she could vie for the role of favorite following back-to-back Grade 1 smashers.

It is a long way to Del Mar, but Elate has come a long way already, from early-season bomb to late-season star.

Expectations were high for Elate, whose 2-year-old debut was stunning. Facing maidens in November at Aqueduct, she romped by more than 12 lengths, similar to another Bill Mott-trained juvenile filly, Royal Delta, who won her autumn debut by a similar margin.

When heavy rain began to fall Wednesday at Gulfstream Park as Curlin’s Approval was being tacked up in preparation for her final serious work prior to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, her owner-trainer Happy Alter suddenly had an important decision to make. Does he send his multiple graded stakes winner out to breeze over a sloppy track or does he wait, hoping conditions might improve over the next couple of days?

At this point, new frontiers have become hard to find for Mongolian Saturday.

Over his five years of racing, the 7-year-old Any Given Saturday gelding has run for a $25,000 tag and won a Breeders’ Cup race. He has competed at 16 different tracks in the United States, England, and Hong Kong; raced over dirt, turf and synthetic; and entered the gate for races from 4 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/8 miles, from bullrings to the Santa Anita downhill course.

Despite the fact three of the five most recent renewals of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint have been won by 3-year-olds, it is quite possible as few as only two sophomores, Takaful and American Pastime, will contest this year’s edition Nov. 4 at Del Mar.

Trinniberg (2012), Runhappy (2015), and defending champion Drefong all showed that pure speed can trump experience when it comes to a race like the Sprint. Takaful, with seven starts, and American Pastime, with only six, are the two least-experienced horses pointing to the Sprint.

Last year, By the Moon was flown to California nearly a month ahead of the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita. But with Del Mar providing only a short window of training time prior to the race this year, trainer Michelle Nevin opted to keep the two-time Grade 1 winner home with her in New York.

“She ships the 29th,” said Nevin, who trains By the Moon for her breeder, the Jay Em Ess Stable of Samantha Siegel.

ELMONT, N.Y. – The retired Twilight Eclipse won’t be making a fifth consecutive appearance in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, but his former trainer, Tom Albertrani, will be back in the $4 million race Nov. 4 at Del Mar.

Albertrani will making his fifth straight and sixth overall appearance in the Turf, this time with Sadler’s Joy, who Monday worked a half-mile in 49.72 seconds over the Belmont Park main track. It was the first work for Sadler’s Joy since his fourth-place finish as the favorite in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic on Sept. 30.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Drefong is the defending winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and judging by the way he worked Monday, he is going to be all set for a defense of his victory on Nov. 4 at Del Mar.

Working six furlongs from the gate in company with Met Mile winner Mor Spirit, Drefong was going easily under jockey Drayden Van Dyke before pulling away late. He was timed in 1:12.20, with Mor Spirit – who is a notoriously moderate work horse – finishing up in 1:12.80 in his prep for the BC Dirt Mile. Drefong’s time was the best of 12 at the distance Monday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – With the Breeders’ Cup Classic less than three weeks away, the tone of workouts for Arrogate and Gun Runner was cranked up a notch Monday morning at Santa Anita, with both putting in demanding drills in company designed to have them at their best for a showdown for Horse of the Year on Nov. 4 at Del Mar.

Arrogate, who won last year’s Classic at Santa Anita, worked six furlongs in company in 1:13.20, then galloped out a full mile in 1:39.80, according to Santa Anita’s clockers. Rafael Bejarano, who has been on Arrogate in his recent drills, was aboard.