DEL MAR, Calif. – Look at Del Mar, all grown up now. What was once a sleepy little track built by celebrities Bing Crosby and Pat O’Brien, with a grandstand that looked like it belonged at a county fair, has morphed in recent decades into a modern, major facility that ranks as one of the elite racetracks in the country.

How much have things changed over the years? So much so that the first time Steve Asmussen came here, in the summer of 1982, he was an apprentice jockey.

“Quite the place for a 16-year-old,” he said while watching his horses train Wednesday morning.

The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale is set to begin at 2 p.m. on Nov. 9 at the company’s Newtown Paddocks headquarters in Lexington. The sun is projected to set at 5:30 p.m.

And then, the stars will come out.

The November sale is annually billed as “the night of the stars,” and this year is no exception. The broodmares and racing or broodmare prospects who will be showcased under the lights in the back half of this year’s catalog – which through Oct. 20 numbers 266 but is still open to supplemental entries – include four champions.

Japanese bettors will be able to bet into separate pools on three Breeders’ Cup races this year, including the Filly and Mare Turf, where the country’s Loves Only You is 4-1 on the morning line, according to Breeders’ Cup officials.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Midway through Friday’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar, there is a likelihood Hello You will be racing near the pace.

Hello You ran in that fashion in the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket Racecourse in England on Sept. 24, stalking the pace then closing with a flourish to win the seven-furlong race by 1 1/2 lengths. The $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf is run at a mile, a furlong farther than Hello You ever has run.

Despite her Rockfel victory, Hello You is 10-1 on the morning line.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Godolphin and trainer Charlie Appleby have two chances to win the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Friday. Four years ago at Del Mar, their one horse in the Juvenile Turf, Masar, lost all chance when jockey William Buick came out of a stirrup on the far turn.

Masar finished sixth that day and clearly had the quality to win; he captured the Derby at Epsom the next June. Both this year’s colts, Albahr and Modern Games, have strong merit in a spectacularly competitive 14-horse renewal of the $1 million Juvenile Turf.

DEL MAR, Calif. – So far, she’s made everything look as easy as her name.

Echo Zulu – the letters EZ in the military alphabet – has won all three of her starts by daylight, by a combined margin of nearly 17 lengths. With two Grade 1 wins already on her résumé, and the fastest Beyer Speed Figures in the short, six-horse field, she is unquestionably the one to beat in the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Friday at Del Mar.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The last time the Breeders’ Cup was held at Del Mar, in 2017, the $2 million Juvenile was won by a maiden trained by Chad Brown.

Friday, when the Breeders’ Cup returns to Del Mar for a second time, it wouldn’t be surprising to again see the Juvenile winner trained by Brown. It also wouldn’t be shocking to see the winner be a maiden. This time, however, it wouldn’t be the same horse.

DEL MAR, Calif. – In order to get somewhere, you’ve got to go everywhere.

That’s sort of the mantra agent Ron Anderson and jockey Joel Rosario have lived by this fall as the former attempts to make the latter the leading rider in the country in the most important category – purse money won.

“If you want to lead the country on the second page of the Form,” said Anderson, referring to the page in Daily Racing Form that lists the statistical leaders, “you have to travel.

“Good horses, big purses, and if you got to go to different places you got to go.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – He’s always on the go, to the track to watch his horses train, to the airport to head off and see another of his strings, the phone ever present to check in with his team of assistants. Often, there’s not much time for reflection for Steve Asmussen. There’s another track to get to, another race to win.

But this past year has afforded him many opportunities to savor where he’s come from – most notably, the people who made him who he is – and how much he’s accomplished.

DEL MAR, Calif. – If things go according to form in the opening race of the 2021 Breeders’ Cup, the powers that be may have to consider renaming the event the Wesley Ward Juvenile Turf Sprint. After all, Ward has won the last two runnings of a race only added to the Breeders’ Cup schedule in 2018, with Four Wheel Drive and Golden Pal, and will send out the two likely favorites, Averly Jane and Twilight Gleaming, in this year’s five-furlong turf dash on Friday at Del Mar.