While a minor illness cost division leader Sovereignty a chance to face older rivals in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, his fellow 3-year-olds hardly covered themselves in Classic glory. Journalism, the Preakness winner, finished fourth, while Baeza, the Pennsylvania Derby winner, was sixth. Nevada Beach, hero of the Goodwood Stakes, finished seventh.

That’s not to say the sophomore set won’t eventually catch up to their elders, and Magnitude will get his chance against older rivals Nov. 28 at Churchill in the Grade 2, $600,000 Clark Stakes.

Lovesick Blues and Big City Lights, California-bred stakes winners who could have given Man O Rose a battle in The Chosen Vron Stakes last Saturday at Del Mar had they not run in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, are being pointed to their next starts. Lovesick Blues and Big City Lights finished sixth and eighth, respectively, in the BC Sprint on Nov. 1.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Bishops Bay, winner of the Grade 3 Forty Niner Stakes on Nov. 2, will be strongly considered for the Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile here on Dec. 6, trainer Brad Cox said.

Bishops Bay, who won the Forty Niner by three-quarters of a length over Nelson Avenue, is now 2 for 2 going a one-turn mile at Aqueduct having also captured the Grade 3 Westchester here in the spring. Overall, Bishops Bay is 8 for 12 with victories in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile at Monmouth and the American Pharoah Stakes at Oaklawn.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Gezora, the 9-1 winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar for trainer Francis-Henri Graffard, will be transferred to Chad Brown and have a 4-year-old campaign stateside.

Gezora is getting a 30-day break at Dell Ridge Farm in Lexington, Ky., before she joins Brown’s stable at Payson Park in Florida. Gezora is owned by Peter Brant, one of Brown’s main clients.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Book’em Danno, the multiple Grade 1 stakes-winning New Jersey-bred, will soon be joining trainer Derek Ryan’s stable at Tampa Bay Downs to begin preparing for his 5-year-old campaign.

Ryan, speaking Friday morning at Belmont Park, where he has a few horses stabled, said Book’em Danno is currently on a farm in Ocala “chilling” and getting some exercise on a treadmill. Ryan said while he doesn’t anticipate having Book’em Danno ready in time for a trip to Saudi Arabia in February, he didn’t rule out a trip to Dubai for the Golden Shaheen on March 28.

The mini turf festival at Churchill Downs this week continues Sunday with the featured seventh race, a third-level allowance with a $100,000 claiming option carded for one mile on grass.

This comes one day after the River City Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile grass race for older horses, and two days after Churchill filled a fourth-level allowance for older turf milers.

Immersive never really got untracked this year after winning an Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old filly of 2024. And Good Cheer had a quiet second half of her 3-year-old campaign after capturing the Kentucky Oaks. But both fillies will race on next year at age 4, trainer Brad Cox said this week.