LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Covfefe is being turned out for the balance of the year and will return to training in early 2020 with a repeat in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland being the primary goal, trainer Brad Cox said Wednesday at Churchill Downs.

Covfefe will get “maybe a couple of months” at the McKathan Brothers training center in Ocala, Fla., said Cox. The 3-year-old Into Mischief filly won the BC Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita last Saturday, clinching a divisional Eclipse Award.

The first week of the Del Mar autumn meeting, which begins its four-week run Friday, is the only one without a graded stakes. The richest race this week is Sunday’s $100,000 Desi Arnaz Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at 6 1/2 furlongs.

The race drew 16 nominees, including Leucothea, the easy winner of the Anoakia Stakes at six furlongs on Oct. 13 at Santa Anita, and Powerfulattraction, who was second in the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar in August and seventh in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Aug. 31 in her most recent start.

Ronald R went from winning a $40,000 claimer in May 2018 to a victory in the restricted Lure Stakes at Santa Anita last Thursday. Now trainer Ron Ellis is considering giving Ronald R his graded stakes debut in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap on Nov. 30 at Del Mar.

Jockeys Flavien Prat and Abel Cedillo finished in a tie for the riding title at the Santa Anita autumn meeting, which ended Sunday, with 21 wins.

They will both ride at the Del Mar autumn meeting, which begins Friday, although Prat will have a two-day advantage. Cedillo is not riding on Friday and Saturday while completing a three-day suspension for a recent riding infraction.

Cedillo, 30, said last weekend that he planned to spend a few days this week visiting family in Northern California.

Jose Valdivia Jr., a top rider in Southern California in the 2000s, has returned to this circuit after years of riding in the Midwest. Valdivia, who has two mounts on Friday’s eight-race program at Del Mar, is relaunching his California career at a venue he knows well.

Valdivia won 11 stakes at Del Mar from 2003 to 2012 and will ride there for the first time since the Breeders’ Cup in 2017.

“The thing about it is a change of scenery is good and you appreciate what you left behind,” he said.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Due to the inclement weather in the forecast, Woodbine has announced that turf racing has been scrapped for this week, and probably for the rest of the meet.

The remaining races in the current condition book will be offered at the alternate distance listed for the main track. There are no turf races scheduled in the next condition book, which goes from Nov. 13 to Dec. 1. The meet concludes Dec. 15.

“At this time, there is no turf racing planned for the rest of the season,” Woodbine racing secretary Scott Lane said.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Maedean, the 5 1/2-length winner of the Tempted Stakes last Friday at Aqueduct, will point to the Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle Stakes at Aqueduct on Dec. 7, trainer Mark Hennig said Monday.

Maedean, a daughter of Tapit owned by Courtlandt Farms, earned a 74 Beyer in the Tempted, running a mile in 1:36.75.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The connections of Tiz the Law, the Grade 1 Champagne winner by Constitution, believe a victory in the Grade 2, $300,000 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs on Nov. 30 could put them in the hunt for an Eclipse Award in the 2-year-old male division.

Typically, the award goes to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, but that race was won by 45-1 longshot Storm the Court. Tiz the Law skipped the Breeders’ Cup because neither trainer Barclay Tagg nor the owner, Sackatoga Stable, wanted to ship cross-country to run a young horse at Santa Anita.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – If not for a burst water pipe that forced Laurel Park to cancel its Oct. 24 card, we still might not know just how good a colt Independence Hall is.

Independence Hall dominated Sunday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct by 12 1/4 lengths, earning a 101 Beyer Speed Figure that ranks as the best figure achieved by a 2-year-old of any gender in 2019. Yet, the Nashua was Plan B after a first-level allowance on Oct. 24 at Laurel was lost when that card – and subsequently three more – was canceled due to a broken water pipe along the track apron.

ARCADIA, Calif. – For the last five years, and for most of the nearly 50 years that the Eclipse Awards have existed, the Horse of the Year has been either the outstanding 3-year-old from the Triple Crown races, or the best older distance horse on dirt.