Ron Winchell purchased 70 percent interest in Brethren this summer in part because he felt the half-brother to 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver had “stallion potential.” But that’s for another day. Winchell said his immediate goal with Brethren is to “get him back at a graded stakes level,” and on Saturday the horse will move closer to that objective when he starts in the $150,000 Delta Mile.

STICKNEY, Ill. – A horse died Wednesday at Hawthorne Race Course after exhibiting symptoms consistent with the equine herpesvirus, which has infected the backstretch here. Result of herpes tests administered to that animal and another ailing horse in the same barn weren’t available Thursday afternoon, but if herpes is confirmed, it would be a setback in efforts to push the virus out of the Hawthorne stabling area.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Handsome Mike, who won the Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing in September but was ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 3, will start in the $250,000 Hollywood Derby at Hollywood Park on Nov. 25.
The Grade 1 Hollywood Derby is run over 1 1/4 miles on turf, and is expected to have a large field.

“He deserves a look in there for sure,” trainer Doug O’Neill said.

Amazombie, the champion sprinter of 2011, will have an early 2013 campaign geared to stakes races away from Santa Anita, trainer Bill Spawr said earlier this week.

Amazombie was eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 3, a race preceded by a fourth-place finish on that track in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Oct. 6. Spawr said the addition of more than 1,000 tons of sand to the Santa Anita surface during the summer led to a change in the surface that did not suit Amazombie.

“I guess Santa Anita is out of the question, sad to say,” Spawr said.

Since returning to Turf Paradise from Hastings Park in British Columbia, trainer Phil Hall has been looking forward to Saturday’s two turf stakes for 3-year-olds.

He’ll be sending out Racing for Gold in the $35,000 Chandler, a one-mile race for fillies, and The Gov in the $35,000 Jack Coady Sr., a one-mile race for males.

Racing for Gold, who has won both her turf starts at Turf Paradise, is a stakes winner who has hit the board in all nine lifetime starts and will try to go over the $100,000 mark in lifetime earnings Saturday.

The 3-year-old Lucy’s Bob Boy successfully challenged older horses while making his first start beyond seven furlongs in last month’s $450,000 West Virginia Breeders Classic, and he will seek to show his easy victory was no fluke when he clashes with defending champion Plantation and the millionaire Russell Road in Saturday night’s $50,000 A Huevo Stakes at Charles Town.

A U.S. District Court judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that a state regulation allowing licensees to appeal ejections from parimutuel facilities is unconstitutional because it does not guarantee that the appeal will be heard promptly.

Los Ojitos and Munnings Sister, a pair of 3-year-old fillies who began their careers running on synthetic and grass surfaces in California, look to continue their success sprinting on dirt when they meet in Saturday’s $125,000 Safely Kept Stakes at Laurel Park.

The seven-furlong Safely Kept drew a field of nine 3-year-old fillies, only two of whom have ever won a stakes.

Trainer Kenneth Roberts will have numbers in his favor for the richest Quarter Horse race in Louisiana on Saturday night, when he sends out three runners in the $1 million Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Breeders Futurity at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La.

A field of 10 will go in the Breeders Futurity, a restricted Grade 1 and one of two million-dollar races to be run in Louisiana on Saturday. Earlier in the day, the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot for Thoroughbreds will be held at Delta Downs in Vinton, La.

Three-year-old males get their final graded-stakes opportunity of the New York season in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Discovery Handicap, once around Aqueduct’s main track at 1 1/8 miles.

The Discovery, won by the likes of Kelso, Forego, Dynaformer, and Evening Attire, is race 8, and part of a $250,000 late pick four that gets under way with the If Winter Comes overnight stakes (race 6) at 2:45 p.m. Eastern.