DEL MAR, Calif. – Koala Princess has not raced since a win in the Ainsworth Stakes at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 12. If she prevails in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, Koala Princess would win following the longest layoff in the 13-year history of the one-mile race.

In 2015, Catch a Glimpse won the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes on Sept. 12, and won the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf at Keeneland when the event was held one week earlier than this year.

DEL MAR, Calif. – George Leonard III already had a stable star.

Leonard, a trainer, and an owner named Dave Hearn claimed a 5-year-old gelding named Zanesville for $5,000 in August 2020. The new connections moved Zanesville into starter-allowance competition – the gelding has not raced for a claiming price in the 18 starts since Leonard dropped the claim – and Zanesville won four times through the end of last year, banking about $65,000 in purses.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The field for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar may not be finalized until scratch time on race morning, and will depend on decisions made by Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien and the powerful Coolmore syndicate, which owns all or part of five pre-entrants.

O’Brien has won the BC Turf a record six times, and has had a constant presence in the race since 2011. This year, O’Brien pre-entered Bolshoi Ballet, Broome, Japan, Love, and Mogul, all Grade 1 or Group 1 winners.

The international Shadwell Stables operation experienced a monumental loss this year as its founder, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al-Maktoum, died in March. But even as the powerhouse stable navigates that loss and evaluates its operations, it has continued to show the strength of Sheikh Hamdan’s program.

Shadwell will have Kentucky Oaks winner Malathaat as one of the prime contenders in this Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff. And a few weeks ago, Shadwell shone on another fall showcase program, with three winners on British Champions Day, including two homebred Group 1 winners.

World-renowned sire Galileo, whose death in July sent shockwaves through the racing world, will look to posthumously extend his lead as the Breeders’ Cup’s all-time leading sire by money won. Meanwhile, the action this week at Del Mar also could shift the leaderboard of the event’s leading living sires.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The field for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar was reduced by one on Monday morning when Mind Control, one of two horses expected to compete for trainer Todd Pletcher, was not entered after spiking a temperature, Pletcher said.

“It’s not ideal timing,” Pletcher said. “Very unfortunate.”

Mind Control won the Parx Dirt Mile in his last start.

Pletcher said that Mind Control could now be pointed to the Cigar Mile on Dec. 4 at Aqueduct. John Velazquez was scheduled to ride Mind Control in the Dirt Mile.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Ain’t Easy on Monday morning at Del Mar was not entered in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies when she failed to jog to the satisfaction of trainer Phil D’Amato, and her jockey, Joel Rosario, was quickly snapped up by trainer Steve Asmussen for race favorite Echo Zulu.

Ain’t Easy has won both her races, including the Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita in her last start. She had gone to the track for routine training on Monday after working on Saturday, but was jogged later and was “not 100 percent,” D’Amato said.

The Metropolitan Handicap has long been considered a stallion-making race, showcasing the brilliance so valued in the American marketplace and the ability to carry that speed beyond a true sprint distance. Now the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, inaugurated in 2007, also has begun to develop the looks of a stallion-making event.

The deal had been negotiated. The paperwork was signed and scanned. All that remained to complete the transaction that would confirm Firenze Fire’s future as a stallion in Japan was the press of a button.

“It sat there on my computer for about 45 minutes before I could push send,” Ron Lombardi said.

Perhaps it is fitting that the feisty turf miler Mo Forza, rated as one of the leading chances for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar, was bred by Barry Abrams, the late California trainer who himself was full of verve.

“He did have his own ideas about things,” said his wife of 38 years, Dyan.

“Barry was a character,” trainer Peter Miller said.