HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It begins in the fall and ends in the spring, but the tradition-rich Gulfstream Park Championship meeting is still considered the winter meet by longtime horseplayers, who eagerly anticipate another star-studded season of racing in south Florida, beginning Saturday and continuing through April 1.

Total handle for the 21-day Churchill Downs fall meet that concluded on Sunday was down 1 percent compared with handle during the 21-day meet last year, according to amended figures released on Wednesday by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

Total handle was $96.6 million this year, compared with $97.6 million last year, according to the figures, which were amended on Wednesday after questions were raised about an initial release from the KHRC on Monday.

Trainer Peter Miller, who won two Breeders’ Cup races earlier this month at Del Mar, said Wednesday he plans to have a division of horses at the Oaklawn Park meet that opens in January. It will mark the first time he has raced in Arkansas.

Miller won the Breeders' Cup Sprint with Roy H and the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint with Stormy Liberal. His main base of operation will continue to be Southern California. 

Expect Ebben to make his next start Jan. 13 in the Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds following his eye-catching win Nov. 25 at Churchill in a first-level allowance race.

Following less-than-ideal journeys in the Iroquois and the Street Sense at Churchill, Ebben broke through with a 4 1/2-length score in a one-turn mile, getting a career-best 75 Beyer Figure.

“I was glad he got the chance to run the other day after a couple tougher trips,” said trainer Steve Margolis.

Bucchero wants to run no more than six furlongs on turf, while Bullards Alley needs at least 1 1/2 miles on grass for his best.

Trainer Tim Glyshaw should have little trouble keeping his stable stars apart next year.

Time will tell if Brad Cox can repeat as leading trainer at the Fair Grounds meet, but there’s little doubt Cox will be heard from in a wide swath of stakes races this season.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The $200,000 Claiming Crown Jewel is the main event Saturday on opening day of the 2017-18 Gulfstream Park Championship meet. And in the true spirit of the Claiming Crown, the 1 1/8-mile Jewel drew a large and competitive field of 13 horses coming off races run at eight different racetracks throughout the U.S. and Canada.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer John Servis will have contenders in both the Demoiselle and Remsen – Grade 2, $200,000 stakes for juvenile females and juveniles, respectively, at Aqueduct on Saturday.

In the Demoiselle, Servis will send out the uncoupled entry of Daisy and Maurer Power in a field of eight.

Daisy, a daughter of Blame, is 2 for 2, including a 4 3/4-length victory in the Grade 3 Tempted here on the Nov. 3 opening-day card.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The decision by the New York Racing Association to move the Cigar Mile back a week on the calendar seemed to pay dividends as four of the 10 horses entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 1 stakes are coming out of a race run on Breeders’ Cup weekend.

Jockey Tracy Hebert reached 4,000 Thoroughbred wins in North America on Tuesday, when he guided Rational Decision to a 4 1/4-length victory in the fourth race at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M.

Hebert, 54, is a native of Erath, La., the same hometown as jockeys Randy Romero, Shane Sellers, and Curt Bourque. Hebert’s first win came at 16 at Evangeline Downs in 1979. He was aboard for his uncle and mentor, trainer Doris Hebert. Tracy Hebert’s mounts have since earned more than $54 million.