CYPRESS, Calif. – Last to Fire’s win in Saturday’s $750,000 Champion of Champions followed by Foose Cash Sr’s victory in Sunday’s $1,989,525 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity was the highlight of the year for Quarter Horse trainer Jose De La Torre.

Whether De La Torre is the trainer of Last to Fire and Foose Cash Sr when they resume racing in 2014 is unclear.

In recent months, De La Torre has had two horses test positive for the bronchodilator clenbuterol, resulting in the redistribution of purses.

Most of the stakes horses of note from Saturday's Louisiana Champions Day card will continue to take advantage of their Louisiana-bred status. One exception is String King, who finished second by about an inch in the $150,000 Champions Day Classic, a stinging loss for owner-breeder-trainer Charlie Smith, who chose that spot over the $100,000 Turf, in which String King, a more proven grass horse, would have been heavily favored.

Six Thoroughbred stakes races highlighted the all-Louisiana-bred Louisiana Champions Day card this past Saturday at Fair Grounds, but the most impressive horse to race during the program might have been a maiden winner.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Teddy’s Promise, winner of Sunday’s $100,250 Playa del Rey Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park, will be sent to Kentucky to be bred to Smart Strike in 2014. But first there is one more objective.

She will attempt to surpass $1 million in career earnings with a win in the $200,000 Santa Monica Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 25.

Teddy’s Promise won the 2013 Santa Monica Stakes, and the race next month is expected to be her final start. Tuesday, trainer Ron Ellis said that Teddy’s Promise has emerged from the Playa del Rey “in excellent shape.”

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - She’s a Tiger, who finished first in the BC Juvenile Fillies but was disqualified to second for causing interference in the stretch, will return to racetrack training this week after a late autumn break, trainer Jeff Bonde said.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Chad Brown will have one of his top 2-year-old fillies in action in Thursday’s featured ninth race when Ready to Act makes her first start since the Breeders’ Cup going a mile on the turf under optional-claiming conditions.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Coup de Grace was one of four winners on Sunday’s card for Javier Castellano, who set a North American single-season earnings record here Friday. Castellano also captured the featured South Beach Stakes aboard the even-money Baffle Me for trainer Mark Hennig. For the third race in a row, Baffle Me rallied to victory from just off the pace.

[Clocker Reports: Get Mike Welsch’s clocker reports from Gulfstream Park and Palm Meadows]

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It might be a little early to call Coup de Grace a Kentucky Derby candidate, but the son of Tapit has certainly given every indication he could wind up on that list after opening his career with two victories. His latest score came by one length over the more experienced Hy Kodiak Warrior when stretching to a mile for the first time in Sunday’s seventh race.

[Clocker Reports: Get Mike Welsch’s clocker reports from Gulfstream Park and Palm Meadows]

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – His last name is not Ortiz, but there are some who hold apprentice rider Manuel Franco in the same high regard as brothers Irad and Jose Ortiz, who rank second and third, respectively, in races won on the New York Racing Association circuit in 2013.