Captain Genius is at the top of his game, and trainer Joe Woodard feels like Tuesday’s $85,000 Mountaineer Sophomore Sprint is a perfect spot for his 3-year-old to get his third win in four starts at Mountaineer.

“He was in with a super bunch older horses in his last, and although this is a tough race, I think it is an easier spot than his last,” Woodard said.

Woodard noted that the winner of Captain Genius’s last race, St Maximus Gato, “is a well established older sprinter,” and he called the second-place horse, Mega Rush, “a winning machine.”

 LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Did they stop making jambalaya down there in New Orleans? What’s with this exodus of Cajun jockeys to south Florida for the winter?

“Pretty funny, huh?” asked Robby Albarado, one of a trio of notable riders who are forsaking their Louisiana homeland and Fair Grounds this winter to ride instead at Gulfstream Park, which starts a four-month meet Dec. 1. “We all have our different reasons for going. I’m just looking to make some inroads with some new people, hopefully pick up a nice 3-year-old.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Take Charge Indy breezed three furlongs Saturday in 35.60 seconds over a fast main track at Churchill Downs with regular rider Calvin Borel aboard, in the colt’s first workout since he finished third in his comeback race, the Oct.  27 Fayette Stakes.

Take Charge Indy and Borel won the Florida Derby before finishing 19th in the May 5 Kentucky Derby, from which the colt exited with an ankle injury. He led most of the way before finishing third, beaten 2 1/2 lengths, in the Fayette at Keeneland.

King Henny fought off a pack of challengers to win the first stakes race of his career Friday night in the $100,000 Clever Trevor for 2-year-olds at Remington Park. The Drifter, the favorite seeking his third stakes win, was pulled up after leading the field through an opening quarter. The race was a prep for the $300,000 Springboard Mile on Dec. 9.  

A pair of $125,000 New York Stallion Series races for 2-year-olds share top billing on Sunday’s nine-race program.

The Great White Way division for colts and geldings (race 3) and the Fifth Avenue division for fillies (race 8) each drew seven-horse fields.

Two other Stallion Series races for older sprinters, the Thunder Rumble and Staten Island, were rescheduled for Wednesday after failing to fill.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The pace will be softer but the distance will be farther when sprinter Reneesgotzip stretches to a mile on turf in the Matriarch at Betfair Hollywood Park on Nov. 25.

Reneesgotzip finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita, missing by a 1 3/4 lengths after chasing a blazing pace.

Flights bringing horses to Louisiana for the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot and Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess are due to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to officials with Tex Sutton Forwarding Company. The horses are scheduled to fly into Lake Charles, La., which is about 30 miles from Delta.

The Jackpot and Princess head a card of eight stakes worth $2.2 million on Saturday, Nov. 17.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Scarlet Strike would have been up against in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies – racing without Lasix on a speed-favoring track at Santa Anita.

Rather than subject the stretch-running filly to compromising conditions, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer postponed resumption of her fall campaign until Sunday, when Scarlet Strike returns as the favorite in the $100,000 Sharp Cat Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park.

“We think she’s an improving horse that is going to do better as the distances get longer,” Hollendorfer said.

Mark Verge’s tenure as chief executive officer for Santa Anita Park has ended, according to two California officials with knowledge of the situation.

Gantry emerged from his 11th-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint healthy and could defend his title in the $100,000 Thanksgiving Handicap on the opening-day card at Fair Grounds on Nov. 22, said his trainer, Ron Faucheux. Gantry is now based at the New Orleans track after spending the past several weeks at Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup.

“We’re not going to rule it out,” Faucheux said. “It’s a possibility he would run in the Thanksgiving Handicap, or we would just wait until the next one, the Gaudin Memorial.”