Fair Grounds on Thursday officially announced racing dates and the stakes schedule for its 2015- 2016 season, which begins Nov. 19 and ends March 27 and encompasses 81 racing dates.

As in 2014, the season begins the week before the traditional Thanksgiving opener, but the Thanksgiving Day card includes the first of 53 stakes at the meet, the Thanksgiving Handicap. Those 53 stakes, 10 of which are graded, are six more stakes than Fair Grounds offered last season, and stakes purses are up from $5,750,000 in 2014 -2015 to $6,437,000 this season.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Group 1 winner Second Step drew post 4 and is the 3-1 morning-line favorite for Sunday’s Grade 1, $1 million Canadian International at Woodbine.

Second Step, who won the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin in his penultimate start in Germany, is coming off a fourth-place finish in the Group 1 Irish St. Leger. Andrea Atzeni will ride the 4-year-old for trainer Luca Cumani in the 12-furlong turf event.

Trevor McCarthy went 5 for 7 at Delaware Park on Wednesday, just missing the single-day record of six winners, which is jointly held by six riders, including McCarthy’s father, Michael.

The five wins vaulted McCarthy into third place in the Delaware Park rider standings, even though he only rides there on his off days. McCarthy is 49 for 184 (27 percent) at the meet. The meet leaders are Carol Cedeno, who is 64 of 333, including eight Arabian wins, and Tyler Conner, who is 55 for 311.

Jockey Angel Castillo has been suspended 20 days and fined $1,500 for a Sept. 21 incident at Parx Racing in which he snatched a whip out of a fellow rider’s hand and used it to urge his mount on to a second-place finish, according to a ruling by the track’s stewards.

Less than a week away from Monday’s pre-entry deadline for the Breeders’ Cup, and it appears that the $2 million Juvenile could attract a full field headed by the Grade 1-winning trio of Brody’s Cause, Greenpointcrusader, and Nyquist.

Larry Rivelli, the trainer of Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes winners Cocked and Loaded, isn’t really paying much attention to the potential composition of the field.

A number of horses remain possible for the Dirt Mile, but it doesn’t appear as though the $1 million race at Keeneland will be oversubscribed when pre-enteries are taken Monday. Owing to a short run to the first turn, the field is capped at 12, plus two also-eligible horses.

Despite the presence of Legatissimo, one of Europe’s top 3-year-old fillies, in the $2 Million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, up to 20 horses may be pre-entered for the race on Monday. But because of the track configuration at Keeneland, only 12 will be allowed to run.

The Filly and Mare Turf will be contested at 1 3/16 miles on Keeneland’s 7 1/2-furlong turf course, and the race starts at the tail end of the course’s far turn. As a result, officials decided to limit the field to 12 instead of a full gate of 14.

Trainer Rodolfo Romero has been suspended 90 days and fined $2,500 by the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission after a search of his barn at Delaware Park turned up eight hypodermic needles, according to state regulators and a ruling against the trainer.

With just over two weeks until the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland, only one thing seems certain: Some will be left on the outside looking in.

Shawn Hurwitz, a prominent businessman in Houston and the chairman of the board of Sam Houston Race Park, died Sunday, according to a representative of the track. Hurwitz was 50. He died as the result of a boating accident on Lake Austin, according to a Tuesday release issued by the police department in Austin, Texas. Hurwitz’s family operates Maxxam Inc., one of the parent companies of Sam Houston.

J. Kent Friedman, a spokesperson for the family, on Monday issued a statement on the passing of Hurwitz.