ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Thursday racing returns for the last two weeks of the Woodbine meet, with a post time of 2 p.m. All eight races on this Thursday’s card are claimers, and the newcomer Brew Blessings is an obvious contender in the seventh, a $20,000 sprint for nonwinners of two.

Golden Gate Fields will again card 11 stakes for its upcoming winter-spring meet that begins Dec. 26.

The 11 stakes – highlighted by the Grade 3, $200,000 El Camino Real Derby, the Grade 3, $100,000 San Francisco Mile, and Grade  3, $100,000 All American – are worth $950,000, a decrease of $150,000 from the 2011-12 meeting.

Missing from the schedule is the Grade 3 Berkeley, but the All American – traditionally scheduled in the fall – will be run in its place with the Berkeley moving to the fall.

Heading into the Golden Gate Debutante, trainer Steve Specht was expecting a good effort from Marks Mine and her stablemate My Lil Shamrock, even thought they would be running against undefeated Ciao Bella Luna.

Ciao Bella Luna, who would go off at 2-5 in the Debutante, had run down Marks Mine in an Oct. 25 prep race.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Edgar Prado is certainly no stranger to Gulfstream Park. The Hall of Famer is back again this winter and comes in on a bit of a roll, having won the Grade 2 Red Smith Handicap aboard Boisterous for trainer Shug McGaughey and the Grade 3 Long Island Handicap with Starformer for Bill Mott on back-to-back weekends in November.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Blessed mostly by nice weather since Hurricane Sandy and a subsequent nor’easter that hit the New York area five weeks ago, Aqueduct has been able to offer turf racing even as December begins.

The fields have certainly thinned out some, which is good news for trainer Mitch Friedman and his New York-bred 3-year-old filly Dreaming of Cara who faces modest competition in Wednesday’s $69,000 first-level allowance feature at 1 1/16 miles.

Owner John Oxley and trainer Mark Casse have made one successful Remington Park invasion this meet, winning a stakes in September. They hope to have another local starter Sunday. Casse said Exploring will likely run in the $300,000 Springboard Mile, a race for 2-year-olds that closes out the meet in Oklahoma City.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Since August, owner Adam Wachtel has been scouring charts, watching videos, and interpreting speed figures in an effort to find an under-the-radar 2-year-old he could attempt to buy and point to next year’s Kentucky Derby.

Wachtel hopes he landed on one in My Name Is Michael, a son of Macho Uno who ran a solid second in last Saturday’s Display Stakes at Woodbine.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Any doubts about whether Joel Rosario would have a major impact on the local jockey colony riding regularly here for the first time this winter were quickly erased opening weekend after he posted hat tricks on each of the first two cards of the 2012-13 session.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – When they say horses come from far and wide to race at Tampa Bay Downs, they’re not kidding.

Trainer Rob Chabot pulled into Oldsmar last month after traveling from Edmonton, Alberta. It was a trip that Chabot calculated in days, not miles.

“Yeah, it was three or four days by the time we got here,” Chabot said, “You just load up and head southeast. The nicest thing about it is it steadily gets warmer the farther south you get.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – There were many skeptics when Fifty Proof returned from a 16-month layoff last Sunday for the $126,600 Sir Barton Stakes at 1 1/16 miles.

Fifty Proof was voted Canada’s champion older male of 2011, but his campaign had been cut short after just four starts, and he had been sidelined again this spring when he was gearing up for his return.