Gary Jones, a second-generation trainer whose brilliance in a relatively brief and meteoric 22-year career landed him in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, died Sunday night at age 76 at his home in Del Mar, Calif., where he had lived since his early retirement in 1996. He had been in declining health for years owing to the effects of dementia.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The pace scenario of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff just got softer. Front-runner Fighting Mad, a Grade 1 winner in California, will skip the Distaff and aim for a stakes race in January.

“We’re going to pass,” Fighting Mad’s trainer Bob Baffert said Monday. “She had to have won her last start, and she didn’t. I was disappointed in her race. You can’t go into the Breeders’ Cup with hesitation.”

Trainer Todd Pletcher won the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf with Pluck, and on Sunday at Keeneland came up with a leading North American hope for the race’s 2020 renewal when Mutasaabeq scored an eye-catching win the Grade 2 Bourbon Stakes.

The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint usually attracts its share of runners who have already done a fair bit of traveling in their nascent careers. In addition to the European shippers who target the race, Wesley Ward also typically sends in youngsters who have been racking up frequent-flyer miles.

Among the well-traveled runners in this year’s field will be Bodenheimer. The colt will become the sixth Washington-bred to start in a Breeders’ Cup race after his travels through the Midwest led him to a victory in the local prep at Breeders’ Cup host track Keeneland.

At this year’s Breeders’ Cup, they are saving the best for last. The $6 million Classic, the last of the 14 Breeders’ Cup races to be run on Nov. 6 and 7 at Keeneland, is shaping up as one of the best in the event’s 37 years, with the titles of Horse of the Year, champion older dirt male, and champion 3-year-old male all potentially in play.

If you think Ivar’s smashing win Oct. 3 in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile came out of nowhere, you need to go to the videotape.

Ivar’s three wins last year in Argentina looked a lot more like his Shadwell performance than did his three previous starts this year in the United States, and trainer Paulo Lobo believes Ivar can run at least as well next month in the Breeders’ Cup Mile as he did Saturday at Keeneland.

Ireland-based trainer Dermot Weld has had his share of success in the United States, winning several Grade 1 races including a memorable performance by Go and Go in the 1990 Belmont Stakes.

However, he has yet to taste success in the Breeders’ Cup, a series in which he is winless with 16 previous starters.

“You’ve got to have the right horse for it,” Weld said Wednesday. “It’s a wonderful occasion. It’d be nice to come back with a nice runner.”

When he loses, which has not occurred very often in the last year, United tends to keep it close.

A 5-year-old gelding, United was beaten a head by eventual Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar in the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita last November as a 51-1 outsider. A month later, United was second by a neck in the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup at Del Mar.

It’s a familiar story that Godolphin Racing hopes has a different ending.

In 2019, the Godolphin-owned Maxfield followed a debut win at Churchill Downs in September with an authoritative victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland in October. He was the 3-1 third choice on the morning line for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita only to be scratched two days before the race due to injury.

Lady Speightspeare, the undefeated winner of the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes on Sept. 20 at Woodbine, will miss the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 6 at Keeneland after recently being diagnosed with a knee injury.

The setback is expected to keep Lady Speightspeare out of training until the winter, trainer Roger Attfield said Wednesday.

“It’s kind of disappointing,” Attfield said. “I have had to stop on her and give her a little bit of time. We’re not going to make it.”