DEL MAR, Calif. - Sovereignty, the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner, spiked a fever overnight and his status for Saturday’s $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar is very much in doubt, trainer Bill Mott said Tuesday.

Sovereignty, the 6-5 morning-line favorite for the Classic, had a fever as high as 103 degrees - two degrees above normal - Tuesday morning but was treated with anti-inflammatories around 6 a.m., and his temperature returned to normal, Mott said.

DEL MAR, Calif.  - When Banishing runs in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar, Chad Summers will be the trainer of record, not David Jacobson. 

Jacobson said that the workman’s compensation insurance policy that is valid in other states, is not valid in California and he said it would take a couple of weeks to get a new policy, which would not be in time for him to be the trainer of record for the Breeders’ Cup. 

Churchill Downs will open the betting on next year’s Kentucky Derby with the first of its future wager pools on Wednesday, with betting closing just prior to the running of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Friday evening.

ARCADIA, Calif. - There are quick workouts and there is the effort the 4-year-old filly Kopion displayed at Santa Anita on Sunday.

A four-time stakes winner, Kopion worked three furlongs in 33.20 seconds under jockey Mike Smith in advance of a first start against males in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar.

“That was pretty amazing,” trainer Richard Mandella said later in the morning at his stable office. “She went in 33 and one, and it looked like she went in 36.”

DEL MAR, Calif. - Humidity, among the pre-entered horses in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, did not ship from England for the race, according to a representative of the International Racing Bureau, which coordinates shipping and on-ground logistics for international Breeders’ Cup participants.  

Most recently second in the Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket, Humidity ranked as a mid-tier overseas contender for the Juvenile Turf, and probably would have been a pace factor since he has led in nearly all his races.

DEL MAR
Sunday, Oct. 26
Weather: Cloudy 
Temp.: 60 
Track: Fast 
Turf: Firm

DEL MAR, Calif. - Desert Gate, winner of the Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes and runner-up in two Grade 1 stakes in California, is out of Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, trainer Bob Baffert told the Breeders’ Cup notes team on Saturday. 

“He’s got an infection on his hock and we had to treat it with antibiotics,” said Baffert, who was planning to work the horse on Sunday. “He is going to be Ok, but he is not going to run.” 

Total handle at the Keeneland fall meet set a record at $217.6 million, according to an analysis by Daily Racing Form, despite slight drops in field size and the number of turf races the track offered during its 17-day meet, which closed on Saturday.

The total handle was a 3.5 percent jump over last year’s handle of $210.4 million. Keeneland offered the same number of races during both fall meets, and average handle per race also jumped 3.5 percent, to $1,351,808.

DEL MAR, Calif. - It is only 69 miles between Keeneland and Churchill Downs in Kentucky. Jose Ortiz, who rode at Keeneland on Saturday and was to ride at Churchill Downs on Sunday afternoon, took a pretty significant detour. 

Ortiz flew from Lexington to San Diego on Saturday night, and early Sunday morning at Del Mar he climbed aboard Journalism to put his recently acquired Breeders’ Cup Classic mount through his final workout prior to Saturday’s $7 million race.