Mucho Macho Man may be out of sight, but he put in a workout Saturday morning at Saratoga that should put him back in the minds of handicapper’s looking ahead to the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Mucho Macho Man, working in company with 4-year-old Skinny Peter, went five furlongs in 57.79 seconds over the Oklahoma training track, according to track clockers. Known as a deep surface, the Oklahoma training track rarely yields such fast workout times.

Mary Ruyle has been named executive director of the Texas Thoroughbred Association, replacing Dave Hooper, who is leaving the position to become a steward during the upcoming Thoroughbred meet at Fair Grounds. Ruyle, the TTA’s business manager who joined the organization 25 years ago, will assume her new responsibilities on Nov. 1. . . . Jockey Francisco Diaz Lopez won his first career race Thursday at Thistledown, bringing General Lafayette from last to first in the seventh race, his seventh career mount.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Maurice W. Miller III, a well-known yearling-to-juvenile reseller who also bred and owned Thoroughbreds, died Thursday in Lexington, the Fayette County coroner’s office has confirmed.

Miller was 53.

The coroner’s office has not yet released a cause of death, saying only that Miller died at a residence in Lexington.

New Bolton Center veterinarians treating Haskell winner Paynter are pleased with the colt’s progress after surgery Wednesday morning to remove a 35-centimeter area of his cecum, a pouch in the horse’s large intestine, that had become abscessed.

The abscess initially was identified by Dr. Laura Javsicas at the Upstate Equine Medical Clinic in Schuylerville, N.Y., and she referred Paynter to surgeon Dr. Louise Southwood at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa.

At half past eight on the morning the Belmont Park fall meet opened, Allen Jerkens stepped out of his golf cart at the training track as thunder rumbled in the distance and dark clouds sat low in the sky. He was about to watch an unraced 2-year-colt of his work. He had told the exercise rider to breeze three furlongs, to let the horse have his head a bit, but Jerkens wasn’t expecting quicksilver.

Paynter, the Haskell winner who has been fighting colitis and laminitis during the last month, is eating well and “very hungry” 24 hours after undergoing surgery at the New Bolton Center to remove an abscess in his cecum, a pouch at the beginning of the large intestine. That update came via Ahmed Zayat’s Thursday morning tweets.

Jockey Oscar Ceballos won the 1,000th Thoroughbred race of his career Wednesday at the Downs at Albuquerque, when he guided Golden Chain to at 2 1/4-length win in the seventh race. Ceballos rode Golden Chain ($8.20) for owner-trainer Rey Marquez.

Ceballos rode his first winner on June 28, 1986. He has had 6,953 Thoroughbred mounts, and they have earned $5.2 million.

Although no final decisions have been made, it appears three of the top five finishers from last Saturday’s Grade 1 Vosburgh at Belmont Park could be headed to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 3.

The Lumber Guy, who returned from a 4 1/2-month layoff to win the six-furlong Vosburgh; Poseidon’s Warrior, a good third after contesting the pace from the rail; and Sean Avery, who finished a disappointing fifth; could all meet again in the Sprint, their connections confirmed this week.

Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park is a Win and You’re In race in more ways than one for Goldencents.

The winner of the Champagne earns an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita with pre-entry fees paid and a $10,000 travel stipend provided by the Breeders’ Cup.

But Goldencents is not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup, and his connections would have to pay to supplemental fee to that 1 1/16-mile race.

This weekend, Chamberlain Bridge will run in Keeneland’s Woodford Stakes, a race that, for some, will serve as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. For Chamberlain Bridge, however, a trip to Santa Anita may not be in the cards, regardless of his effort on Saturday.