Three prep races across the nation for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint last weekend all featured odds-on favorites. Groupie Doll ($2.80) and Musical Romance ($3.20) came through with flying colors winning the Thoroughbred Club of America and Mike Sherman Memorial respectively; but previously unbeaten Winding Way ran herself off the radar screen finishing last of four behind second choice Rumor ($7.20) at 1-5 in the inaugural running of the L.A. Woman Stakes at Santa Anita.

Solemia, the winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris on Sunday, will make the final start of her career outside of France. It remains to be seen whether she will start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 3 or the Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on Nov. 25.

There were mixed signals on Wednesday. Trainer Carlos Laffon-Parias said a decision will be made on Friday.
“It’s between the Breeders’ Cup and the Japan Cup,” Laffon-Parias said in a telephone interview.

Grace Hall needed a big performance to justify returning to the big stage. She delivered at Hoosier Park.

A romping victory Oct. 6 in the Grade 2 Indiana Oaks marked a welcome rebound for Grace Hall in her first start since finishing nowhere as the even-money favorite Aug. 18 in the Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga.

Trainer Tony Dutrow can now look to the West.

Flashy Ways won $100,000 Surfer Girl Stakes for 2-year-old fillies on turf on Monday’s program, the first stakes win for trainer Richard Baltas in 11 years.

Baltas won the Grade 1 Goodwood Stakes in 2001 with Freedom Crest, who was later 13th in the BC Classic at Belmont Park. Since then, Baltas has had a small stable and worked as an assistant trainer to Barry Abrams. He reopened a public stable last fall.

In a pattern that has worked for him before, Gantry will ship early to Santa Anita to be able to work over the Southern California track in advance of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 3.

The last time the horse, who is based in Louisiana, ran in a major stakes, he traveled to Florida well in advance of the Grade 2 Smile to get a drill in at Calder. Gantry won the Smile, a Win and You’re In race, by five lengths and received a fees-paid berth into the BC Sprint as well as a $10,000 travel allowance to Southern California.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Gervinho is bound for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Nov. 3 after winning the Zuma Beach Stakes at Santa Anita on Monday.

His stablemate Winding Way, a stakes-winning female sprinter at Del Mar, will pass the Breeders’ Cup after her first loss Sunday.

That was the approach trainer Carla Gaines envisioned Monday for early November.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – George Weaver will be back at his old Kentucky home Thursday, hoping that a filly named Summer of Fun can provide him a memorable autumn here and in California following wildly divergent efforts in New York and Canada.

Summer of Fun is among a bevy of viable contenders in the eighth and final Win and You’re In event of the Keeneland meet, the Grade 3, $150,000 Jessamine Stakes. The winner gets an expenses-paid berth into the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – With the French contingent having been due to arrive late Tuesday afternoon and the Irish to follow on Wednesday, all the pieces of the puzzle have yet to fall into place for Sunday’s Canadian International Day program.

Three Grade 1 turf stakes will be on tap, with the 1 1/2-mile Canadian International, the 1 1/4-mile E.P. Taylor, and the six-furlong Nearctic all part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program.

[BREEDERS' CUP 2012: DRF top 10 lists, video replays, latest news]

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – In what turned into a match race at the quarter pole, Commander  held off Jebrica to win the Grade 3, $100,000 B.C. Premiers at Hastings on Monday. Commander, who was winning his sixth straight stakes, was sent off as the overwhelming favorite and paid $2.90.

With Mario Gutierrez aboard, Commander was under pressure from Northern Causeway while posting sprint-like fractional times of 23.84 seconds, 46.50, and 1:11.53 in the 1 3/8-mile feature for 3-year-olds and up. After disposing of Northern Causeway following a mile in 1:37.35,

ARCADIA, Calif. – Joe Talamo’s list of Breeders’ Cup turf mounts is growing rapidly.

Saturday, he won the Arroyo Seco Mile at Santa Anita on BC Mile candidate Obviously. Monday, he won the $100,000 Surfer Girl Stakes with Flashy Ways, who may start in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf on this course Nov. 2.

Flashy Ways, who began her career with a win in a $50,000 claimer for maidens at Del Mar on Aug. 16, had a perfect trip to win the one-mile Flashy Girl by 2 1/2 lengths over Wishing Gate, the 2-1 favorite.