STICKNEY, Ill. – Wednesday is Nov. 11, and the high temperature is forecast to be about 60 degrees, which is way above normal in Chicago. This has been one of the warmest autumns on record, and that’s good news for the Hawthorne turf course, which in this unusually temperate season will last longer into this fall-winter Hawthorne meet than typically would be expected.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Santiago Gonzalez swept both of the stakes over the weekend and led all riders with eight victories through two weeks of racing at this fall meet.

Gonzalez won the Kathryn Crosby, a two-turn grass race, on Saturday with Full Ransom, then captured the Betty Grable, a dirt sprint, on Sunday with My Monet.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar’s stewards voted not to fine or suspend Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux for his ride in Saturday’s fourth race aboard the favored What a View, who was caught right on the wire by Professor Berns. To some observers, Desormeaux appeared to stop riding aggressively before the finish and then rose in the saddle as the horses got to the finish.

In a majority decision, Del Mar stewards Kim Sawyer and Tom Ward voted for no penalty, while steward Scott Chaney voted to penalize Desormeaux. They came to their decisions after meeting with Desormeaux on Sunday.

DEL MAR, Calif. – For a weekday allowance race that’s not even the day’s feature, Thursday’s sixth race at Del Mar came up quite tough, with three stakes-placed fillies among the field of six.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Strut the Course encountered trouble in the stretch of the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes on the Woodbine turf on Oct. 18 and will return to Polytrack to face males in the $125,000 Sir Barton Stakes, trainer Barbara Minshall said. The Sir Barton is for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles on Polytrack on Nov. 25.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Missing Sefa will be scratched from the 10th race Wednesday, but the 13-year-old mare isn’t quite finished racing, said owner and trainer Jamie Grubbs.

“The race just came up too tough for her,” said Grubbs. “We’ll probably enter back for another race at the Churchill meet. Either way, I do intend to run her at Turfway this winter.”

During a remarkable 111-race career that began May 12, 2004, at Churchill, Missing Sefa has racked up 28 wins, 20 seconds, and 19 thirds. Grubbs claimed her in December 2004.

“She’s become a part of the family,” she said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s hardly possible to elicit a more bittersweet reaction to victory than in the eighth race Saturday at Churchill, where Mesoma outfought two rivals to win a $57,000 allowance in a three-horse photo.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse is closing in on his ninth consecutive Woodbine training title, and as the 2015 meet winds down, plans are taking shape for next season.

When it comes to early prospects for one of Canada’s biggest races, the $1 million Queen’s Plate for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, Casse already appears to have a number of legitimate threats, including a trio for the Conquest Stables of Ernie Semersky and Dory Newell.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ron Moquett is at it again.

Last year at Churchill Downs, Moquett sent out a pair of 2-year-olds to win maiden races – Far Right and War Story – and both wound up in the Kentucky Derby in May.

No one knows the ultimate destinies of Whitmore and Piracy, but one thing is certain: Sending them out to win their career debuts over the weekend at Churchill was an absolute blast for Moquett.

The baton was passed from California Chrome in 2014 to American Pharoah in 2015. American Pharoah has been retired from racing, but California Chrome has returned to serious training, with designs on getting that baton back in 2016.