And then there was one.

Hawthorne Racecourse, apparently the Chicago area’s lone surviving racetrack, commences a 34-day fall meet Friday.

The track doubles as a construction zone, with Hawthorne preparing what it hopes will be a casino opening during the first quarter of 2023. Average daily purses this meeting are expected to be paid at a modest $120,000 to $125,000 level. And Hawthorne, which sits in a heavily industrialized corridor at the border of the villages of Cicero and Stickney, never has been confused with a bucolic racing mecca.

Garrett O’Rourke, general manager of Juddmonte’s U.S. operation, pretty well summed up the status of the field for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Asked about the possibility of running Pocket Square in the $2 million race, he said, “It’s in the discussion phase.”

It may be up to the 6-year-old gelding United and 4-year-old colt Astronaut to represent the home squad in the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

United won the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship at 1 1/4 miles at Santa Anita on Saturday for his third stakes win in five starts this year.

This much seems certain: There’s little separating the California contingent likely for the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Saturday at Santa Anita, Mo Forza won the City of Hope Mile, the SoCal BC Mile prep, by a half-length over Smooth Like Strait, with Hit the Road a neck farther back in third. Smooth Like Straight got caught up in a hot pace, while Hit the Road had a really tough trip as the second- and third-place finishers ran at least as well as the victor.

Corniche validated his fast debut victory by winning last Saturday’s Grade 1 American Pharoah at Santa Anita. Jack Christopher did the same winning the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont Park. What say you, Classic Causeway?

Classic Causeway, a blowout 6 1/2-length debut winner at Saratoga, will seek his Grade 1 victory and a ticket to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile when he heads a bulky field in Saturday’s $500,000 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland.

Almost by accident, Cairo Memories will take an undefeated record into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 5.

Cairo Memories has won twice in one-mile turf races – a maiden special weight race by 4 1/2 lengths at Del Mar on Sept. 5 and her stakes debut in the Surfer Girl Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths at Santa Anita on Sunday.

The maiden race win was a delightful surprise to trainer Bob Hess Jr., who said Cairo Memories was not completely prepared for her debut on the final weekend of the Del Mar summer meeting.

Is it possible to buy a Breeders’ Cup Classic runner for less than $500,000 less than four months before the event? Yes, yes it is.

That horse is Stilleto Boy, who might not have even been a blip on the Classic radar when purchased for $420,000 on July 12 at the Fasig-Tipton horses of racing age sale. But Stilleto Boy has run himself into the race with good efforts in his last two starts, most recently a second-place finish to Medina Spirit in the Grade 1 Awesome Again last Saturday at Santa Anita.

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.

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.