Trainer Richard Mandella said that In the Stars, the winner of an optional claimer for fillies and mares on turf at Hollywood Park on Friday, will stay on grass at the Santa Anita meeting.

The $150,000 Buena Vista Handicap over a mile on turf on Feb. 18 is a goal for In the Stars, he said.

Friday, In the Stars, the 6-5 favorite, closed from third to catch pacesetter Kune Kune and win the one-mile race by a half-length.

In the Stars, who was group stakes placed in Brazil in 2011, was fourth in the Palms Springs Handicap on dirt at Santa Anita on Nov. 1.

Jimmy Creed will make his third start in a Grade 1 sprint at Santa Anita in the $300,000 Malibu Stakes on the Dec. 26 opening-day program.

So far, results have varied widely for the 3-year-old in such races.

Jimmy Creed made his graded stakes debut in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship over six furlongs on Oct. 6. A 7-1 shot, he closed well along the rail to finish third by three-quarters of a length to Coil, a multiple stakes winner.

Trainer Butch Reid and owner Kasey K Racing Stables are best known for teaming up to win the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Marathon with 41-1 longshot Afleet Again.

Kasey K Racing is actually a group of seven different partnerships managed by Bob Krange, who named the stable after his miniature Schnauser dog Kasey.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The Hollywood Park fall meeting may end on Sunday with improvement in a key statistical category - average field size.

Through Thursday, the 21st day of the 24-day meeting, fields averaged 8.11 starters per race compared to 7.89 starters per race at the 26-day fall meeting in 2011.

Field sizes figure to be strong for the final week. There are 11 races on Sunday that drew 111 runners, though two are on the also-eligible list.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The field for the Grade 1, $300,000 Malibu Stakes over seven furlongs on Santa Anita's opening day, Dec. 26,  is expected to include The Lumber Guy and Jimmy Creed, who were second and ninth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 3.

Friday at Hollywood Park, The Lumber Guy worked six furlongs in 1:14.20. The Malibu Stakes will be his first start for trainer Neil Drysdale. The winner of 4 of 7 starts and $735,800 for owner Barry Schwartz, The Lumber Guy was previously trained by Michael Hushion in New York.

Horsepeople, Woodbine staff, and all others who rely on the industry for their livelihoods will head into the off-season in limbo with no Thoroughbred dates set for next year and no date confirmed for the opening of the backstretch.

The unprecedented situation stems from the Ontario government’s decision this March to discontinue the racetrack slots program as of March 31, 2013.

STICKNEY, Ill. – Fair Grounds in New Orleans has started putting up two-turn races for 2-year-olds about to turn 3. Horses who run well in them might get a chance to move on to the 3-year-old stakes series there, which begins in January with the Lecomte. In a normal year, Fordubai and Street Spice, 2-year-old Jim Tafel homebreds trained by Greg Geier, would be part of that Fair Grounds group. But this has been no normal year.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Gypsy Robin, the 3-year-old multiple stakes winner, has lived in a synthetic world for most of her nine-race career.

She has won three stakes on synthetic tracks at Keeneland and Presque Isle Downs and only one on a dirt track, the Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park in 2011. Trainer Mike Puype will be hoping to close the difference when Gypsy Robin makes her second start in a Grade 1 race in the $300,000 La Brea Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – If he has his mind on business, then Peyton should be dangerous in Sunday’s $150,000 Valedictory Stakes, the closing-day feature of the Woodbine meet.

The Grade 3 marathon has also lured a sharp Bill Mott-trained shipper from Belmont, Imperial Pippin, who will try to become the first filly to win the race since Stellarina in 1995.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Chad Brown’s barn at the Palm Meadows training center will seem just a little emptier this winter with the departure of Awesome Feather, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2010 whose retirement was announced Thursday by Adena Springs Farm.