ARCADIA, Calif. – Eight Rings has behaved in such a positive manner in races and workouts in recent weeks to suggest his antics on Labor Day in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity are behind him.

Eight Rings won the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at 1 1/16 miles by six lengths at Santa Anita on Sept. 27 for his first stakes win. Monday, Eight Rings worked five furlongs in 1:01, moving closer to a start in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile here on Nov. 1.

“He looked great,” Baffert said. “He looks happy and healthy. He sat next to a horse and didn’t get rank. He’s not messing around.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – One week after a deliberately slow half-mile work in her return to Santa Anita, Midnight Bisou turned it up a notch early Monday morning.

The early favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Midnight Bisou worked a solid five furlongs in company and answered a key question – how will she handle a surface that is slower than when she last raced at Santa Anita a year and a half ago?

“She likes this track,” jockey Mike Smith said after the workout. “She handled it really good. Not too many do. She just cruised.”

MIAMI – Trophy Chaser zipped five furlongs in 59.05 seconds on Saturday at Gulfstream Park in his first work since finishing a distant third behind King Jack in the Grade 2 Gallant Bob on Sept. 21 at Parx Racing. Trophy Chaser posted a three-eighths split of 35.31 and was under mild pressure to finish before galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.

MIAMI – Despite the fact Stormy Embrace won a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint by virtue of her victory in the Grade 2 Princess Rooney earlier this summer at Gulfstream Park, trainer Kathleen O’Connell said she and owner Matt Vuskovich have decided to bypass the event.

Stormy Embrace, a homebred daughter of Circular Quay, has won the Princess Rooney each of the last two years. She finished 11th in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs.

Golden Gate Fields opens Thursday for a 36-day fall meeting and will try to continue its positive trend, which has seen an increase in handle in each of its past six race meetings.

“We have no intention of taking our foot off the gas,” says David Duggan, track vice president and general manager.

“This is an exciting time. We might see another superstar. We have some exciting 2-year-olds in the embryo stage we have to build up. They’ll be our standard-bearers for next year.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. – While most Kentucky-based trainers will wait until a few days before the Breeders’ Cup to have their horses flown to California for the Nov. 1-2 championships at Santa Anita, trainer Dale Romans is opting to send his horses a bit earlier.

Led by Dennis’ Moment, the early favorite for the BC Juvenile, the Romans horses are booked to leave Sunday.

“They’ll work Friday at Churchill,” said Romans. “And they’ll have their last work over the track there at Santa Anita.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. – You don’t become one of the top two favorites for the Kentucky Oaks by accident. Restless Rider had been so good and so consistent entering the filly classic that she was 4-1 on the Churchill Downs toteboard, second choice among a field of 14.

And then the bottom dropped out.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Jockey Florent Geroux has been sidelined indefinitely after being diagnosed with a broken sternum suffered in a Sunday morning training accident at Keeneland.

Geroux was breezing Air Strike on the main track when the 4-year-old colt suddenly fell nearing the wire. Geroux was thrown hard to the ground and was subsequently transported to the nearby University of Kentucky Medical Center. Air Strike was not seriously injured.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Cambier Parc is finished racing for the year after ending her 3-year-old season with a second straight Grade 1 victory for her high-profile connections.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said Sunday that Pennsylvania Derby winner Math Wizard will make his next start in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 2 rather than the Dirt Mile, which had also been under consideration for the former claimer.

Math Wizard turned in the first of his three scheduled workouts for the Classic on Sunday morning at Gulfstream Park.

"The Classic for sure," Joseph said a short while after the work. "The owner wants to go to the Classic. He sold some shares in him, and they want to go to the Classic for sure."