ARCADIA, Calif. – Street Band’s pedigree predicted a long wait before the light bulb went on. Owner-trainer Larry Jones saw the same thing with Street Band’s dam and five siblings.

“This family, I’ve trained them all, and it takes them a long time to come around,” Jones said. Perhaps it is fate Street Band’s rider Sophie Doyle also is a late bloomer.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Five years was a lifetime ago for Brad Cox. He was still reassembling a racing stable that had been all but disbanded, the result of an eggs-in-one-basket arrangement with an owner who wound up dismissing him through an attorney.

Cox was here at Santa Anita with his first-ever Breeders’ Cup starter, a 4-year-old gelding named Carve. Dismissed at 17-1 in the 2014 BC Dirt Mile, Carve wasn’t much of a factor when finishing sixth under Mike Smith.

ARCADIA, Calif. –The 20-cent Rainbow pick six has a jackpot carryover of $395,207 on Thursday’s nine-race program at Santa Anita, although many deep-pocketed bettors will wait and focus on the bet on Sunday’s closing day of the autumn meeting.

The Breeders’ Cup programs on Friday and Saturday will not have a Rainbow pick six, but will have a $1 million separate pick six.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Thousand Words, purchased for $1 million last September, is likely bound for a stakes after winning his debut in a maiden special weight race at 6 1/2 furlongs on Saturday at Santa Anita.

The win could lead to a start in the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at seven furlongs on Nov. 16 at Del Mar or the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity at 1 1/16 miles on Dec. 7, the next two graded stakes on dirt for 2-year-olds in Southern California.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The 2-year-old filly Saralin has impressed trainer Simon Callaghan enough in recent workouts for her to have her career debut in a maiden special weight race at a mile on Thursday and not in a sprint.

Then again, Saralin has been drawing attention since she appeared in the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale of 2-year-olds in training in March, where she was purchased for $1.3 million. Saralin was the second most expensive horse of the sale and was acquired by Kaleem Shah and the Coolmore partnership.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The monkey who jumped off John Sadler’s back has found a new ride.

Christophe Clement now holds the record for most starts among Breeders’ Cup trainers who haven’t yet won. Sadler had gone winless from his first 44 BC starters before Accelerate won the Classic last November at Churchill Downs, leaving Clement and his 0-for-36 mark as the new leader in the clubhouse.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Four years ago, jockey Flavien Prat missed three months of racing, including the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland, when he was sidelined by a back injury sustained in riding accident. The inactivity left Prat frustrated at the forced change in his life.

“Everything I was doing was about sport,” Prat recalled in late October. “I realized that when I broke my back. I couldn’t do anything. It was the worst three months of my life. I’m not into video games or stuff like this.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – When popular racing executive Brad McKinzie died a little more than two years ago from cancer at age 62, his loss impacted many people on the Southern California circuit, perhaps none more so than trainer Bob Baffert, who had grown so close to McKinzie since their days four decades earlier at the University of Arizona that they were practically brothers.

CYPRESS, Calif. – With unwavering confidence, Dan Ward had a fast answer when asked last weekend whether Danuska’s My Girl and Vasilika could win Breeders’ Cup races on Saturday at Santa Anita.

“Both,” he said. “One has won three in a row at Santa Anita, and the other has won 10 in a row at Santa Anita. How many horses have done that?”

Never mind that the two runners were beaten in prep races at Keeneland earlier this month. Ward is greatly looking forward to Saturday’s races.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Brendan Walsh was born and raised in Ireland and first started working for English and Irish trainers. Over there, things generally are much different for stable workers than they are here. Walsh would not only ride horses in the morning, he was responsible for all aspects of their care – cleaning stalls, feeding, grooming.