By the time the field in Saturday’s Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar reaches the first turn, Senor Buscador will be in his usual spot at the back of the field. About that time, trainer Todd Fincher will begin alternating his focus on Senor Buscador’s position and the tote board to gauge early fractions in the $1 million race at 1 1/4 miles.

Fincher is begging for a rapid pace to help Senor Buscador’s closing style, a tactic that led to the 5-year-old’s most prestigious win in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on July 29 at Del Mar.

Anisette, winner of two graded stakes for 3-year-old fillies on turf at Del Mar this summer, is scheduled to race against older fillies and mares in a stakes for the first time in the Grade 2 Rodeo Drive Stakes on Oct. 7 at Santa Anita.

Trainer Leonard Powell said Sunday that he intends to start Anisette in the $300,000 Rodeo Drive Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf instead of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup for 3-year-old fillies on Oct. 14 at Keeneland.

Veteran California trainer Hector Palma has been provisionally suspended by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit after one of his starters at Del Mar in late July tested positive for methamphetamine, according to the organization’s website.

The suspension was announced late last week and resulted in the scratch of Geezer from Sunday’s sixth race.

The positive was found in a post-race test taken from Baladi, the fourth-place finisher in a $32,000 claimer on July 30. Baladi, a 4-year-old gelding, has been suspended from racing by HIWU.

In the last decade, the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap has been an annual gathering of many of trainer Phil D’Amato’s leading turf marathoners – and a successful one.

D’Amato has won the race seven times since 2014, including five of the last six runnings. In Saturday’s $300,000 running, D’Amato again has a deep team with three expected runners in Cash Equity, Cathkin Peak, and Gold Phoenix, who won the race in 2022.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Ireland-based Bolshoi Ballet has recorded his last two victories in the U.S, albeit two years apart. He is expected to make another cross-Atlantic trip next month for the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, trainer Aidan O’Brien said Monday.

Bolshoi Ballet was a dominant 4 1/2-length winner of Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Sword Dancer Stakes, which earned him an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.

O’Brien said the Breeders’ Cup is the goal and the Joe Hirsch will be the way to get him there.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Clapton has joined a new band, er barn.

Clapton, winner of the Grade 3 Ghostzapper Stakes at Gulfstream Park in April and runner-up in the Grade 2 Suburban at Belmont Park last month, was purchased privately by Sheikh Rashid Bin Humaid Alnuami’s RRR Racing from Arindel Farm. He has been turned over to trainer Chad Summers, who will start him in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga.

It’s been nowhere but up for Kentucky Downs over the past decade. The first track in Kentucky to install historical horse racing machines, in 2011, Kentucky Downs has gone from being a border-town curiosity to a powerhouse on the Kentucky racing circuit. This year, an estimated $2 billion will be bet at its two casinos near the Tennessee border. From that, approximately $15 million will be sent into the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, while Kentucky Downs itself will retain nearly $150 million in net commissions.