ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Melmich and Pender Harbour ran one-two Sept. 2 in the Elgin Stakes and will face each other again in the Thursday feature at Woodbine, a 1 5/8-mile allowance on Polytrack that serves as the local prep for the Grade 3, $150,000 Valedictory Stakes on the meet’s closing day, Nov. 29.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – For the last six months, the New York Racing Association has enjoyed a spike in business at Belmont Park and Saratoga due to a combination of factors, including appearances by American Pharoah and the kindness of Mother Nature.

American Pharoah, the Triple Crown winner, retired over the weekend and arrived at his new home, Ashford Stud in Lexington, Ky., on Monday.

Starting Wednesday, Aqueduct is NYRA’s home for racing for the next six months, and officials are hoping Mother Nature doesn’t retire her racing-friendly weather.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Less than 24 hours after the sports world celebrated the sensational triumph of American Pharoah in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland, some intriguing young prospects went to work Sunday to attain their own degrees of racing fame.

Right down the road at Churchill Downs, Stageplay revealed herself as perhaps the most promising winner on the 10-race Stars of Tomorrow card that opened the 21-day fall meet, toying with 12 other 2-year-old fillies in winning the Rags to Riches Stakes.

Though trainer Chad Brown was in Kentucky at the Breeders' Cup, his stable didn’t miss a beat Saturday, winning a pair of stakes at Belmont Park, to put the wrap on a phenomenal fall meet.

Brown won the Grade 3 Bold Ruler with Matrooh and ran one-two in the Chelsea Flower Stakes with Ava’s Kitten and Llanita. Brown, who is assisted in New York by Cherie DeVaux, won the Belmont trainer’s title with 35 wins (seven stakes) from 110 starters. Linda Rice was second with 19 wins.

Brown said the Grade 1 Cigar Mile on Nov. 28 “will be under consideration” for Matrooh.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Crittenden finished a neck in front of Acceptance in Saturday’s $82,150 Let It Ride Stakes on turf in what could be the first of two showdowns between the 3-year-olds at the Del Mar autumn meeting.

After the Let It Ride Stakes, trainer Eoin Harty said Crittenden “definitely” would be pointed for the $300,000 Hollywood Derby, a Grade 1 at 1 1/8 miles on turf Nov. 28.

The 2-year-old Smokey Image is unbeaten in five sprints, the most recent of which was the $200,500 Golden State Juvenile at Del Mar on Friday. For his next start, Smokey Image will be pointed for the $100,000 King Glorious Stakes for California-breds at a mile Dec. 12 at Los Alamitos.

The King Glorious will define how Smokey Image will be raced in coming months. A win could lead to a start in a prep for the Triple Crown in early 2016.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – After winning three Breeders’ Cup races in 2014, trainer Chad Brown returned to the 2015 Breeders’ Cup with the most runners of any trainer and walked away with two more victories in the sport’s premier year-end event.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The qualities that set American Pharoah apart from any racehorse Bob Baffert has ever trained were on full display in a little more than 12 hours here at Keeneland, for on Sunday morning, the day after he obliterated his rivals in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, American Pharoah came out to greet at adoring public at Barn 62, taking it in with a calmness that was in stark contrast to the speed and power he had unleashed in the race.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Nyquist and Swipe, who ran first and second – in that order for the fourth consecutive time – Saturday in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland, were to return to California in the coming days for a brief rest before gearing up for a run at next year’s Kentucky Derby.

The brilliant Songbird, who rolled by 5 3/4 lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, was packing up Sunday morning to head back to California, with an eye toward an eagerly anticipated 3-year-old campaign.

Songbird, based in California with trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, has won all four of her starts by a combined 22 lengths and is a three-time Grade 1 winner.

“We’re looking forward to next year,” Hollendorfer said, while declining to name a specific next target. “We don’t have any plans yet, but we will.”