ARCADIA, Calif. – Carmelita’s Man, a durable gelding who campaigned through five seasons and won eight races, including three stakes for California-breds, has run his final race.

Owner Larry Jett and trainer Dean Pederson retired the 7-year-old after his fourth-place finish at Del Mar in the California Dreamin,’ a summer-season turf mile he won in 2022 and 2023.

ARCADIA, Calif. – California-bred sprinters on the Santa Anita hillside will be in the spotlight Oct. 12-13. The $100,000 California Distaff Handicap is Saturday; the $100,000 California Flag Handicap is Sunday.

While the California Distaff could include stakes winners Big Summer, Connie Swingle, Sassy Nature, and Stay and Scam, the California Flag open to both genders will not include the top three Cal-bred males currently racing or training toward a comeback.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A horse who won’t be competing here this October is nevertheless one of the most famous horses currently stabled at Keeneland. 

Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan has been galloping daily at Keeneland since Oct. 3, after arriving the day prior from a vacation at trainer Ken McPeek’s Magdalena Farm in Lexington. The break from racetrack life of just shy of three months clearly agreed with the colt. He has put on weight – McPeek said about 150 pounds – and his coat has a healthy shine.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Sweet Azteca’s puzzling misfire Saturday at Santa Anita did not knock her out of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint yet, but trainer Michael McCarthy will take a wait-and-see approach before planning her next start.

The globe-trotting Hall of Fame racemare Tepin has died, according to Aidan O’Brien, the European-based trainer for her owner, Coolmore.

O’Brien spoke to the European press after saddling Tepin’s daughter Grateful to win the Group 1 Prix de Royallieu on Saturday at Longchamp.

“Tepin has unfortunately died, and I imagine that her daughter will eventually pick up the baton at stud sooner or later,” O’Brien said.

Dr. Scott Stanley, the former director of a drug-testing laboratory at the University of Kentucky, has denied several allegations that underpinned the loss of the lab’s accreditation and his own removal as head of the facility.

Cristina Keith, Dr. Stanley’s attorney, said in a letter distributed to media on Friday that claims Stanley falsified results at the lab and improperly billed the Horseracing Integrity and Wagering Unit were unsupported by evidence. She also said that the accusations had inflicted “irreparable” harm on Stanley’s personal and professional reputation.

The Marksman V, winner of the $832,707 Ruidoso Derby in New Mexico in June, and 12 other Quarter Horses, all trained by Heath Taylor, have been euthanized in the last 10 days in California and Texas after being diagnosed with equine infectious anemia, Taylor and the California Horse Racing Board said on Thursday and Friday.

Taylor said on Friday that six of his horses at Lone Star Park have been euthanized after being diagnosed with equine infectious anemia. He did not name the individual runners, citing advice from Texas officials.

The Marksman V, winner of the $832,707 Ruidoso Derby in New Mexico in June, and six other Quarter Horses, all trained by Heath Taylor, have been euthanized in the last 10 days after being diagnosed with equine infectious anemia, the California Horse Racing Board announced on Thursday.

The Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Classic will have a post time of 5:41 p.m. Eastern, or 2:41 local time at the event’s host track, Del Mar in Southern California, and will be followed by four Breeders’ Cup races for the first time in its history, the organization announced on Thursday.