LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With rain in the forecast Saturday and temperatures predicted to dip into the 20s that evening, the Churchill track-maintenance crew will have a busy Saturday evening and Sunday, regularly harrowing the main track to keep it from freezing.

Even Sunday afternoon won’t provide the maintenance crew with much of a warm-up as the National Weather Service is calling for a high temperature of only 36 degrees, albeit under sunny skies.

By now, String King must know the 335-mile route from the River Point Equestrian Center in Haughton, La., to Fair Grounds well enough that he could walk it on his own rather than ride in a trailer, but of course, it was a horse trailer that Charlie Smith – the breeder, owner, and trainer of String King – used to take the horse from River Point to New Orleans a couple of weeks ago.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Typical for Churchill Downs, the fall meet, which ends next Saturday, will conclude with a flurry of graded stakes action, including two graded stakes each day Thursday through Saturday.

The Grade 2 Falls City and Grade 3 River City handicaps headline the Thanksgiving Day action, followed by the Grade 3 Commonwealth Turf and Grade 1 Clark Handicap on Friday and the Grade 2 Golden Rod and Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club stakes on closing-day Saturday, which, as usual, will have a card solely comprised of 2-year-old races.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When a rider goes down in a spill and does not immediately spring back up, worry creeps into the hearts of those watching as they wait, hoping for a signal that the jockey has avoided a major injury.

In this short period of time, minutes can seem like hours, as they did Thursday at Churchill Downs after Sebastian Saez and Sophie Doyle were unseated in a spill during the fifth race. Both lay on the main track for at least five minutes before being transported to nearby Norton Audubon Hospital.

The Thanksgiving Handicap was drawn Thursday and is headed by Clearly Now, a recent arrival on the circuit after being privately purchased by Brittlyn Stable and turned over to trainer Ron Faucheux. Clearly Now, trained previously by Brian Lynch, is a 5-year-old who has been among the better East Coast sprinters for three seasons now, though at times, he has teased at being something even better than a very good horse with earnings of more than $1 million.

The New Orleans area got between 1 1/2 and two inches of rain Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, but to the great surprise of many, Fair Grounds was able to conduct turf racing on opening day Thursday. The course started out yielding but was upgraded to good and didn’t seem especially wet, laboring, or difficult to handle.

“It’s a little soft because of the rain, but it’s in great shape,” said jockey Florent Geroux, who won an opening-day grass race.

Speechify, who miraculously escaped serious injury when he fell during the Grade 3 Woodford Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 3, returns in Sunday’s $50,000 feature at Gulfstream Park West, to be decided under open allowance conditions at five furlongs on turf. The race attracted a field of 10 that also includes the stakes-caliber New York-bred Notacatbutallama from the barn of trainer Todd Pletcher.

MIAMI – Nominations have been released for the nine Claiming Crown races that will highlight opening day of the 2015-16 Gulfstream Park championship meet on Dec. 5.

This will mark the 17th edition of the popular series, which rewards and pays homage to the horses who are the foundation of racing programs at racetracks throughout the country year-round, and the fourth consecutive year the Claiming Crown has been held at Gulfstream Park.

Calamity Kate was making her way to New Mexico on Friday for the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks. The 1 1/16-mile race is the centerpiece of the track’s third annual Land of Enchantment program on Wednesday. The card of eight stakes worth a total of $1.28 million also includes the $200,000 Zia Park Derby and the $150,000 Distance Championship.

Texas Red, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita in 2014, is undergoing preliminary training at WinStar Farm in Kentucky, trainer Keith Desormeaux said.

Texas Red is expected to join Desormeaux’s stable at Santa Anita next month to prepare for a 2016 campaign. Texas Red won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 1 and was fifth in the Travers Stakes there Aug. 29 in his most recent start.