Monomoy Girl eclipsed everyone in 2020, including her stablemates. While the super-mare won all four starts and raced toward a second Breeders’ Cup Distaff victory, a pair of less-distinguished fillies from the same stable had done enough for one season.

Shedaresthedevil upset the Kentucky Oaks; Bonny South won the Fair Grounds Oaks. But when both lost races as the favorite late in their 3-year-old seasons, trainer Brad Cox concluded that facing Monomoy Girl in the Distaff was too much to ask.

Shedaresthedevil and Bonny South would have their chance in 2021, at age 4.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ken McPeek got an Alcibiades for the thumb last year when he sent out the one-two finishers. Now the 59-year-old trainer is intent on tying the record of six Alcibiades wins held by D. Wayne Lukas when he sends out a pair of contenders in a wide-open renewal of the Grade 1 race Friday at Keeneland.

Knicks Go has developed from a dirt miler into a top contender for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, negating any chance of defending his title in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. So when his trainer, Brad Cox, was asked last week if he thought he’d have anything for the race, he said he doubted it.

That all changed Saturday, in the time (1:33.85, to be exact) that it took Plainsman to capture the Grade 3 Ack Ack at Churchill Downs, earning him a spot in the Dirt Mile on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

Fresh off a major win over Florida that sent students into the streets of Lexington to celebrate, the University of Kentucky football team hosts LSU on Saturday evening. But there’s another big reason for the Wildcats to be fired up this weekend.

Unbeaten stakes winner Averly Jane, who was bred, raised, and prepared for sale by students from the University of Kentucky’s equine program at Maine Chance Farm, is a potential starter in the Indian Summer Stakes on Sunday at Keeneland. The race awards its winner a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.

In the much-loved 1994 film “Forrest Gump,” the title character says his mother told him, “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

Owner-breeder Nick Alexander, who counts “Forrest Gump” as one of his favorite movies, didn’t quite know what he had with Lieutenant Dan, his California-bred gelding named after Forrest’s friend in the film. But the gelding belied his modest beginnings and overcame a long layoff to emerge as a multiple graded stakes winner this season, making his case to be a supplemental entry to the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.

Races in California and New York this past weekend – New York especially – were informative in regard to the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Nov. 5 at Del Mar. France – not so much.

Annapolis followed an encouraging debut win in a Saratoga maiden turf route with a narrow but impressive victory Sunday in the Grade 2 Pilgrim Stakes at Belmont. Annapolis, a Bass Racing homebred by War Front trained by Todd Pletcher, got a showy 89 Beyer Speed Figure for his Pilgrim performance.

Friday will bring the last prep for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and wouldn’t it be something if the winner of the Alcibiades at Keeneland had a reply for Echo Zulu and Ain’t Easy?

Echo Zulu was sensational in remaining unbeaten Sunday in the Grade 1 Frizette, winning off as she pleased in a performance to make her the 7-5 favorite for the Nov. 5 BC Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar in the latest Daily Racing Form rankings.

There’s still one more Win and You’re In event toward the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, but it figures to have minimal impact on the big picture.

The Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America is that final prep on the road to the BC Filly and Mare Sprint, but it will have little effect on Gamine being a huge favorite in the seven-furlong race set for Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

ARCADIA, Calif. – With just one sprint to his credit, Corniche successfully stretched out around two turns in his second start and romped on Friday in the Grade 1, $301,000 American Pharoah for 2-year-olds, looking like a horse with far more experience, which should help him when he moves on to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in 35 days.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Lieutenant Dan earned $120,000 for winning his third consecutive race in Friday’s Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes for turf sprinters at Santa Anita.

The winner’s share of the prize money is enough for owner and breeder Nick Alexander to finance a $100,000 fee to nominate Lieutenant Dan to the Breeders’ Cup program in time for the Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 6.

“We earned enough money to do it,” Alexander said in the winner’s circle. “It’s hard not to do it.”