Proven ability over the distance of 1 3/4 miles is unlikely to become a calling card in American racing anytime soon, and the Breeders’ Cup Marathon has faced something of an uphill battle in its attempt to lure top-class horses since being added for the 2008 program (Can you name the post-time favorite for each of the four runnings to date?).

With just more than five weeks remaining before the Breeders’ Cup, the prospective field for the Filly and Mare Turf remains unsettled. But important preps Saturday in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl at Belmont Park and the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive at Santa Anita should go a long way toward determining the key participants.

The two races, both run at the Filly and Mare Turf distance of 1 1/4 miles, are Win and You’re In Breeders’ Cup Challenge races, which provide the winner with an fees-paid berth in the race as well as a $10,000 travel allowance.

Like many of the Breeders’ Cup events, the lineup for the $1 million Dirt Mile has a lot of “ifs” to it, at least at this early juncture.

The results of the next two weekends, with such key races as the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park and Grade 1 Awesome Again at Santa Anita still to be run, should allow quite a bit of the proverbial dust to settle while determining the outlook for the Dirt Mile.

The 6-year-old Bourbon Bay may try something new this fall – a Breeders’ Cup race.

Trainer Neil Drysdale has the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 3 as a goal for the seven-time stakes winner. A key test comes in Sunday’s $150,000 John Henry Turf Championship at Santa Anita.

The Grade 2 John Henry, at 1 1/4 miles, is run over a course that Bourbon Bay adores. A gelding owned by Dave and Jill Heerensperger, Bourbon Bay has won 7 of 9 starts at Santa Anita, including six stakes ranging in distance from 1 1/4 miles to about 1 3/4 miles.

The New Mexico Racing Commission has banned a leading Quarter Horse trainer for 10 years after two horses he trained tested positive for the powerful painkiller dermorphin.

John H. Bassett, who has trained two winners of the $2 million All American Futurity, was handed the ban Saturday and also was fined $10,000 and ordered to return purse money from the races where the horses tested positive. The 10-year ban is the maximum that the racing commission could levy.

The $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies suffered its first major casualty on Wednesday when So Many Ways, the undefeated winner of the Grade 1 Spinaway, was declared from the Nov. 2 race by owner Maggi Moss. So Many Ways will be getting some time off in Maryland under the care of her trainer, Tony Dutrow, and could return to action at Gulfstream Park.

Earlier this month, and for the second consecutive year, Ben’s Cat won the Turf Monster Handicap at Parx Racing, a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In race that guarantees the victor a position in the starting gate in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 3. But for the second consecutive year, Ben’s Cat may just stay home.

Although she had no prior experience in graded stakes, Dust and Diamonds ran herself into a contender’s role for the Filly and Mare Sprint by winning last Saturday’s Gallant Bloom Handicap in stakes-record time at Belmont Park, leaving in her wake Judy the Beauty, a 3-year-old who was coming off a heart-breaking nose loss in the Prioress; Musical Romance, the defending Filly and Mare Sprint winner and champion female sprinter of 2011; and Turbulent Descent, last year’s Filly and Mare Sprint favorite who was coming off a win in the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Unbeaten 2-year-old filly champions eventually lose or retire. For most flashy juvenile phenoms, the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic for older fillies and mares is a long way off.

Not this year.

For the first time in Breeders’ Cup history, the Ladies’ Classic field will include an undefeated starter fast enough to win the BC Juvenile Fillies early in her career and durable enough to be running late in her career.

Not just one filly, but two.

Two Win and You’re In races have been contested on the road toward the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Sky Lantern won the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh impressively Sept. 9, and her connections have indicated an interest in sending her to Santa Anita for the Juvenile Fillies Turf, to be run Nov. 2. The consistent Irish-bred has 3 wins and 2 seconds in 5 starts, all for trainer Richard Hannon.