Jockey Jansen Melancon has moved his tack to Fair Grounds in New Orleans, said his father, veteran rider Gerard Melancon. Jansen, 24, and his father, 45, have both been competing at Delta. Gerard Melancon said his son’s last full card at Delta was Saturday.

“He’s hoping for a big horse,” Gerard Melancon said.

Jansen is 11th in the Delta standings. He will be represented at Fair Grounds by agent Jerry Reites, said Gerard Melancon.

Among the attractions on an excellent Friday undercard is the $65,000 Dream Supreme, an overnight stakes slotted as the second of 12 races. Salty Strike, a winner in 4 of 8 starts this year, looks like the horse to beat in a field of seven fillies and mares going six furlongs.

“This looks like a really good spot for her,” said trainer Ken McPeek. “She didn’t run as well as we thought she would” when finishing third as the favorite in the Grade 2 Chilukki nearly three weeks ago, “but overall she’s had a great year, and she loves Churchill.”

Retama Park near San Antonio has announced plans for a new stakes, the $35,000-added Wounded Warriors Mile, on its closing-day card Dec. 29.

The one-mile turf race is restricted to Texas-breds who have never won a stakes. It is for 3-year-olds and up. Nominations close Dec. 19.

Fifth Date will be cutting back to a sprint distance for the first time since August in the $50,000 Silver Goblin at Remington Park in Oklahoma City. The 6 1/2-furlong stakes is for 3-year-olds and up bred in Oklahoma, and it will be run on a special daytime card Friday.

Beholder, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, is expected to make her 3-year-old debut in the $150,000 Santa Ynez Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over 6 1/2 furlongs on Jan. 21, trainer Richard Mandella said Wednesday.

Mandella said that Beholder “is starting to gallop” in preparation for her return to racing. Owned by B. Wayne Hughes, Beholder has won 3 of 5 starts and $1,215,000. She is a leading candidate for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding 2-year-old of 2012.

NEW ORLEANS – The 3-year-old gelding Unlatch did well when he made his career debut in August, finishing second of eight in an Ellis Park turf-route race. He was even better in September, winning a Kentucky Downs maiden race by more than two lengths, and Unlatch hit an even higher peak in October, when he finished fast to beat 11 first-level allowance foes in a Keeneland turf race.

Mizdirection, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 3, will skip Sunday’s $250,000 Matriarch Stakes for fillies and mares on turf.

Alex Solis II, who manages the syndicate that owns the filly, said Wednesday that Mizdirection will be pointed to the Monrovia Stakes.

“We’ve got a long year ahead of us,” he said.

Without Mizdirection, the list of probable starters is led by the 3-year-old Dayatthespa, winner of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland last month. Trained by Chad Brown, Dayatthespa has won her last five starts.

Prospective closed out his 3-year-old season Saturday when he defeated older horses in the $150,000 Delta Mile at Delta Downs in Vinton, La. Trainer Mark Casse said the horse is being freshened and after a break will resume training in Florida.

“He’s done for the year,” said Casse, who trains Prospective for John Oxley. “I don’t really see a whole lot for him for the next little while. We’ll give him a little break. But he doesn’t really like breaks.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There is a certain asymmetry in the way the twin 2-year-old stakes Saturday at Churchill Downs shape up. While the Golden Rod Stakes seems marginally passable in its Grade 2 ranking, it appears that the male counterpart, the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, might have come up with its deepest field in years.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There are no seven-figure purses up for grabs, no championship honors at stake, and there are certainly no San Gabriel Mountains to provide an aesthetic backdrop.

But to owner Mike Repole, this weekend at Aqueduct is the most important weekend of the month of November.

From Thursday to Saturday, Repole planned to run seven horses in six stakes races – four of which are graded – at Aqueduct.

“This is my Breeders’ Cup weekend,” Repole said.