Touching Promise is heading home for the winter after upsetting Madeira Park in the Grade 3, $100,000 Ballerina last Monday. Considering that she finished third in the 1 1/8-mile race last year as a 3-year-old and was coming off a solid effort in an allowance race Sept. 27, she was a bit of an overlay at greater than 13-1.

Trainer Barbara Heads wasn’t surprised that she ran so well.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Anita Bolton said Alert Bay came out of his win over older horses in the Grade 3, $100,000 Premiers at Hastings last Monday in excellent shape and will be heading south, possibly for the $200,000 Zia Park Derby at Zia Park on Nov. 26. Last year, For Cash, another horse coming out of Western Canada, won the 1 1/16-mile race. Trained by Dale Greeenwood, For Cash paid $34.60 for the biggest win of his career.

After she recovers from a recent surgery, Euro Charline will return to trainer Marco Botti in England to prepare for the $6 million Dubai Duty Free in March, it was announced this week by the Team Valor International partnership that owns the filly.

Euro Charline, the winner of the Aug. 16 Beverly D. Stakes over older fillies and mares in her only U.S. start, underwent surgery Tuesday to remove a tiny chip from a hind ankle. Dr. Larry Bramlage performed the operation at nearby Rood & Riddle.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Normandy Invasion, the multiple stakes-placed runner, is recuperating from surgery to repair a fractured sesamoid and will be evaluated at a later date to determine whether he will be put back in training next year.

Rick Porter, who races under the name Fox Hill Farm, posted the news about Normandy Invasion’s injury on his website Wednesday, though the injury occurred following a workout at Delaware Park on Sept. 17, according to trainer Larry Jones.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Stablemates V. E. Day and Wicked Strong were separated by just a nose in the Travers. Now, they are separated by several hundred miles.

On Tuesday, V. E. Day worked a half-mile in 49.89 seconds at Belmont Park as his connections decide where next to run him. On Wednesday, Wicked Strong shipped by van to Middleburg, Va., where his owner, Centennial Farms, has a farm for its young horses and layups.

ELMONT, N.Y. – The defection of Wise Dan could open the floodgates for several horses to run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Za Approval, second to Wise Dan in last year’s Mile, is being pointed to that race but most likely would have to be chosen by the Breeders’ Cup Selection Committee should the race oversubscribe.

Za Approval’s only victory from five starts this year came in the Real Courage here Sept. 7. He was scratched out of Saturday’s Grade 3 Knickerbocker Stakes because of the soft turf. On Wednesday, he worked four furlongs in 49.12 seconds over the Belmont main track.

ELMONT, N.Y. – The way things have been going of late, trainer Mike Hushion was not necessarily looking to see changes in Artemis Agrotera. But the relaxed manner in which the 3-year-old filly breezed Wednesday at Belmont Park was clearly an indication that Artemis Agrotera is changing for the better.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Mike Hushion remembers the days when it was easy to tell that the upcoming race was for New York-breds.

“They all looked like greyhounds walking into the paddock,” Hushion said.

That is far from the case nowadays. The advancements in the New York-bred program have been ongoing for years. Better-bred horses have led to bigger accomplishments. Of course, none was bigger than when Funny Cide captured the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 2003.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Velvet Mesquite, who won her first stakes in the $101,250 California Distaff Handicap last Saturday at Santa Anita, may shoot for a more prestigious prize in the $100,000 Sen. Ken Maddy Stakes on Nov. 1.

Trainer Blake Heap said Wednesday that he would like to try Velvet Mesquite in the Grade 3 Maddy to gain another start on a surface that the filly has proven to like.

“She seemed like she handled this race pretty good,” Heap said.