ARCADIA, Calif. – After Worldly finished second in the Governor’s Cup Stakes at Remington Park in August, trainer Brendan Walsh needed an autumn goal for the 6-year-old.

The requirements were basic – find a distance race that would not attract the best horses. The objective was found with Friday’s $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon at Santa Anita over 1 3/4 miles, a new distance for Worldly.

“He’s bred to stay and that’s an important factor,” Walsh said. “We won’t know until we try it.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Favorites are still winless in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile since the $1 million race became part of a new two-day program six years ago in a New Jersey downpour. The odds are good the streak will remain intact Friday at Santa Anita, because regardless of who is favored in a full field of 12, he will be lukewarm, with “the other 11” rating a far better mathematical chance.

It takes a lot to make Jim Rome miss work, but the allure of the Breeders’ Cup is enough to make the 49-year-old sports-talk superstar take off Friday to be on hand at Santa Anita.

Rome owns a stake in Mizdirection, the defending champion in the $1 million BC Turf Sprint on Saturday. Mike Puype, the trainer of Mizdirection, said Rome will be here Friday and Saturday not only as a co-owner but as one of 15 Breeders’ Cup ambassadors who receive VIP treatment as they help to spread the word about horse racing to the world at large.

A fair number of Breeders’ Cup horses will be making their final starts Friday and Saturday. Win or lose, that means some teary farewells are in store, whether in front of television cameras or back in the relative privacy of the stables.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The gang’s all here! Well, almost.

At a press conference following Monday’s post-position draw for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Eric Guillot, the trainer of Moreno, apologized to D. Wayne Lukas, the trainer of Will Take Charge, for accusing Lukas’s rider, Luis Saez, of carrying an electrical device during the Travers, in which Will Take Charge beat Moreno by a nose.

Will Take Charge and Moreno, who also finished first and second in the Pennsylvania Derby, are part of a 12-horse field entered in Saturday’s Classic.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Four leading contenders for Saturday’s $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf – Big Blue Kitten, Point of Entry, Real Solution, and The Fugue – had their first morning of exercise at Santa Anita on Tuesday.

The Fugue, trained in England by John Gosden, cleared quarantine Monday. On Tuesday, she jogged a mile on the main track, according to Les Reynolds, an assistant to Gosden. A 4-year-old filly, The Fugue is expected to be favored in the BC Turf on the strength of her win in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes against males in September.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Relegated to the also-eligible list for Friday's Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, Easter Gift did not ship to California from New York on Tuesday. Trainer Chad Brown said Easter Gift likely will be pointed to the Clark Handicap on Nov. 29 at Churchill Downs.

“I’d like to run that horse two turns,” Brown said.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Bill Mott turned 60 in July, but in much the same way as his horses do, Mott isn’t getting older – he’s getting better.

In a career that will go down as among the best of any Thoroughbred trainer, Mott is in the midst of an exceptional year. With two months left in 2013, Mott has won 21 graded stakes, the most since he captured 23 in 2007, and only six behind his career high of 27 achieved in 1998.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Verrazano, a two-time Grade 1-winning 3-year-old, will make the final start of his career in Friday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita and will stand the 2014 breeding season at Ashford Stud, the American division of Ireland’s Coolmore stud, it was announced Tuesday.