Horsemen with stakes-quality sprinters have plenty of options in the Mid-Atlantic.

On Saturday, the Grade 3, $250,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash will be run at Laurel Park. On Thanksgiving Eve, the $200,000 Fabulous Strike is on tap at Penn National. And, on the holiday, the Grade 3, $200,000 Fall Highweight will be the feature at Aqueduct. All three races are for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs.

While local trainers will be shopping for the best spot, out-of-towners Tom Howard and Jorge Navarro have committed top contenders to the De Francis Dash.

Charles Town Races in West Virginia will cut its takeout on its two daily pick 4 wagers to 15 percent, effective with its first live racing card in December, the track announced on Tuesday.

The track received approval to cut the takeout from the West Virginia Racing Commission on Tuesday morning after getting sign-off on the plan from local horsemen. Prior to the cut, the takeout on the pick 4 was 22 percent.

The cut will go into effect on Dec. 1, the track said.

Horses are often best judged by the company they keep, and one of the reasons Balandeen has landed in Saturday’s Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot is how well he ran against a good horse in his last start.

The Jackpot, a 1 1/16-mile race for 2-year-olds, will anchor a card of eight stakes worth $2.3 million at Delta Downs, the richest program of the year at Delta.

Balandeen finished second at 19-1 on Oct. 30 in the $83,000 Street Sense at Churchill Downs. The winner, McCraken, is unbeaten in two starts.

MIAMI – Jockey Elvis Trujillo, sidelined three months due to chronic kidney stones, returned to riding this past weekend at Gulfstream Park West and plans to remain in south Florida throughout the winter.

“Elvis is healthy and grateful to be back to work again,” his agent, Cliff Collier, said. “He had recurring issues with kidney stones, he wasn’t sweating right, and was having trouble losing weight. But that’s all straightened away now. He’s tacking 119 at the moment, but hopes to be down to 116 in a couple of weeks.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Steve Towne has been around racetracks for more than five decades. He’s accustomed to going to work between 4:30 and 5 a.m. every morning.

But for the past week, Towne has had little to do until 10 a.m., when he’s finally able to send the first of the four horses he has stabled at Gulfstream Park out to train.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With the New York graded turf stakes complete for the year, trainers Jimmy Toner and Chad Brown will soon take their show on the road, sending horses to Southern California for upcoming graded grass events.

Toner will ship Time and Motion and Defiant Honor this Sunday to Del Mar, where they will run in the Grade 1 Matriarch on Dec. 4 and Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes on Nov. 26, respectively.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Takaful, an impressive eight-length debut winner at Belmont on Oct. 29, is expected to make his next start in the Grade 2, $300,000 Remsen at Aqueduct on Nov. 26, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said.

“We’re stuck – nowhere else to go, “ McLaughlin said. “We’re heading that way. We wish we could have run him a month earlier and run in the Nashua.”

In his debut, Takaful ran 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.82, which was 2.10 seconds faster than Lead Astray ran in winning the other division of the same maiden race.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Connect, the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby winner, and Anchor Down, the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap winner, head the list of probable starters for the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Nov. 26.

STICKNEY, Ill. – Joel Berndt’s first year as a trainer came in 1991. His first graded-stakes win came Saturday, when Hay Dakota was up by a neck at odds of 29-1 in the Grade 3 Commonwealth Turf at Churchill Downs.

Berndt said Sunday that Hay Dakota, who got an 86 Beyer for his fourth win, could start next at Gulfstream Park on Dec. 3 in the $125,000 Claiming Crown Emerald. Hay Dakota qualifies for that starter-allowance race because he ran in a $20,000 maiden claimer in June at Canterbury Park.

Pat On the Back will be stepping outside of the New York-bred ranks for the first time in his career Saturday in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot. He will be seeking his third stakes win after victories in the $250,000 Sleepy Hollow last month at Belmont Park and the $120,000 Aspirant in September at Finger Lakes.