HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Curlin’s Approval will be off to the breeding shed this spring for a date with Triple Crown winner Justify. But before she leaves the racetrack, owner-trainer Happy Alter was hoping to add a couple of more graded stakes wins to her already impressive résumé, beginning here Saturday with the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl.

Unfortunately, Alter will have to wait for another day to get Curlin’s Approval back in the winner’s circle after she contracted a virus shortly after posting a bullet half-mile work in 46.47 under jockey Edgard Zayas at Gulfstream Park on Nov. 20.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has approved Woodbine for a 133-day campaign next season, while Fort Erie will again run a 40-day meet in 2019.

The 2019 Woodbine meet will begin April 20, while opening day at Fort Erie is May 28.

Woodbine will run on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays for the majority of the season. Friday racing will kick off April 26, while Wednesday night racing will begin May 29. Woodbine will also run on four holiday Monday cards during the meet. Closing day is Dec. 15.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Kevin Attard is finishing his Woodbine season well, recording six wins and threee seconds from his last 24 starts, dating to Nov. 28. One of those victories came Sunday when Pumpkin Rumble won the Grade 3 Valedictory Stakes. Another Attard runner, Melmich, finished second, just a half-length behind.

“We’ve had a good November and December,” Attard said. “It’s nice to see everybody’s hard work come to hand and finish off strong. The staff puts in a lot of time. Hopefully, we’ll regroup for next spring.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Whether it’s a sprint or a route, on turf or synthetic, it doesn’t seem to matter to Kingsport. The 6-year-old recorded his fourth stakes win in eight starts this season by taking the Sir Barton Stakes for the second year in a row at Woodbine on Dec. 2.

“He’s a nice old horse,” trainer Sid Attard said. “I’ve never seen him better. It’s too bad the season is finished.”

Golden Gate Fields has made big changes to its winter-spring meet stakes schedule, adding a wrinkle to the El Camino Real Derby and scheduling six stakes for one card.

The Grade 3 San Francisco Mile is the top race among the six stakes on Saturday, April 27. The purse for the Mile was increased $50,000, and its date was pushed back one month from last year’s March running.

Keros, a half-brother to Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Blame, romped by 10 lengths Saturday night in a six-furlong maiden race.

Keros, a 4-year-old son of First Samurai, was making his third start and his first since being gelded. He is based at the Skylight training center with Tom Drury.

Keros is owned by his breeders, Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider, who campaigned Blame, best known for dealing Zenyatta her only career defeat in their epic clash in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic. Blame, by Arch, has become an established sire at Claiborne.

As well as Luan Machado did in Brazil, it still would have been very difficult for the 24-year-old jockey to break into a top winter circuit in the United States. So there’s a method to the madness that has Machado riding at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky.

“He and I agreed that this would be the right time and place for him,” said his agent, Jimmy McNerney.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Spiced Perfection and Just Grazed Me were first and second in the Betty Grable Stakes for California-bred fillies and mares at Del Mar on Nov. 11. They might meet again in a more difficult setting – the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.

Spiced Perfection won the Betty Grable Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths over Just Grazed Me, who returned to win an optional claimer at six furlongs by four lengths at Los Alamitos last Friday under jockey Tyler Baze.

CYPRESS, Calif. – From 2-year-old colts to established 4-year-olds, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has runners in several stakes at Los Alamitos and Santa Anita for the remainder of the month.

On Sunday, closing day for the Los Alamitos winter meeting, Hollendorfer will start Galilean in the $100,000 King Glorious Stakes for California-bred 2-year-olds at a mile. Owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, Denise Barker, and William Sandbrook, Galilean was second in the Golden State Juvenile at seven furlongs, finishing a neck behind Cruel Intention after disputing the pace throughout.

Accelerate, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3, has started a series of workouts in preparation for his final career start in the $9 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 26.

At Santa Anita on Saturday, Accelerate worked a half-mile in 49 seconds under Juan Leyva, an exercise rider and assistant trainer to John Sadler.

“It was just the first work to get started,” Sadler said Sunday. “Juan thought his energy was good.”