No doubt it has been a productive period in Kentucky for Jose Ortiz, whose final day of riding at his first Keeneland meet will be Friday. Into Wednesday, Ortiz had mount earnings of $718,310 for the meet, third behind Julien Leparoux and Florent Geroux.

But for bettors faithfully backing Ortiz, it hasn’t been that great. From his first 52 mounts, Ortiz had seven wins, nine seconds, and 11 thirds, with a return on investment of just $0.91 per $2 win wager. His record with favorites was 5 for 16, with an ROI of $1.76.

Hawksmoor, beaten just a head and a nose when third in her North American debut last Saturday in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, has been turned over to Arnaud Delacour at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland by her owner, the Lael Stables of Roy and Gretchen Jackson.

Delacour said a decision probably will be made in the next couple of weeks on whether to send Hawksmoor to the Grade 1 Matriarch on Dec. 4 at Del Mar for a final start of the year or just “give her a break and come back in the spring.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. – There are three graded stakes winners among a field of 12 3-year-old fillies in the Raven Run Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland.

Two of them, Lucy N Ethel and Lightstream, figure among the favorites in a well-matched 18th running of the Grade 2, $250,000 Raven Run. The other, Covey Trace, does not.

“I love it,” said Brook Smith, who co-owns Covey Trace with trainer Billy Denzik. “There are some pretty classy fillies in there. If we hit the board, I think we’ll be happy.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – The horses headed west for the Breeders’ Cup to potentially take on the likes of locally based California Chrome and Arrogate are about to begin their journeys or are here already, with Frosted completing his serious New York-based training on Wednesday, while Gun Runner has arrived for a key workout this weekend.

Usually, a long road trip for trainer Charlton Baker and his horses means going from Finger Lakes to Belmont Park or vice versa. But Baker and his 7-year-old gelding Joking soon will embark on a serious road trip, boarding flights for Southern California to compete in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 5.

Baker, 50, has transformed the former claimer Joking into one of the nation’s premier sprinters, with the gelded son of Unbridled Humor capping a four-race win streak this month with a victory in the Vosburgh to give the Jamaican-born horseman the first Grade 1 win of his career.

ARCADIA, Calif. – While foreign shippers have won many Breeders’ Cup races on grass, only a handful have won on dirt. Arcangues, Arazi, Sheikh Albadou, and Calidoscopio won Breeders’ Cup races on dirt in their first start in North America. It is not impossible.

But at least one Breeders’ Cup race on dirt has proven elusive – the Distaff for fillies and mares. Eight foreign shippers have tried the Distaff. None has hit the board.

Two high-class 3-year-old fillies – one in Europe, the other from America – were withdrawn from consideration this week for the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita.

So Mi Dar, whose lone defeat in five starts came when third in the Prix de l’Opera on Oct. 2, was announced as out Tuesday by numerous British racing publications, and then on Wednesday, trainer Jimmy Toner confirmed that Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup winner Time and Motion also would bypass the Breeders’ Cup.

Delaware Park, the Delaware Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, CANTER Delaware, and Mid-Atlantic Horse Rescue will hold a free open house Sunday featuring retiring racehorses for sale.

The open house will run from 9 a.m. to noon Eastern by the Lasix and receiving barns on the Delaware Park backstretch. To access the open house, enter through the stable gate (Gate 4).

John W. Baird has sent out a steady stream of winners since 1982, first at Fairmount Park and Hawthorne Race Course in his native Illinois and then for the last 20 years or so at Mountaineer Park in West Virginia.

As of Wednesday morning, Baird needed one victory to reach 2,000 winners.

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The Friday card at Laurel Park is topped by a first-level optional-claiming race for 2-year-olds at a mile on turf. Monsoon K S A, who finished fourth in the Grade 2 With Anticipation Stakes at Saratoga in his most recent start, is the horse to beat, but there are other promising runners in the field.