STICKNEY, Ill. - For years Carlos Silva was the go-to rider for the renowned trainer Richard Hazelton, and when Hazelton finally left training for good two summers ago at Arlington Park, Silva, who had retired from riding, was basically running the shed row. Silva took out his own trainer's license and has made a go of things the last two seasons thanks to backing from the Asiel Stable of Dr. Richard Radke, a longtime Hazelton owner.

A week after winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic aboard Fort Larned, jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. will be at Retama Park near San Antonio on Saturday night to ride in the meet’s two most important stakes, the $75,000 El Joven and the $75,000 La Senorita.

“He had given us the call before he became big-time,” quipped trainer Michael Stidham, who will send out Every Way in the La Senorita.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Lumber Guy, who finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint last Saturday at Santa Anita, has remained in California with trainer Neil Drysdale and will be pointed to the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, owner Barry Schwartz said Thursday.

Schwartz and his wife, Sheryl, live in New York, but in recent years they have been spending more and more of their winters in Santa Barbara, Calif.

MIAMI – There are eight stakes races on Saturday’s Florida Million program for Florida-breds at Calder, none more competitive than the $150,000 Jack Dudley Sprint Handicap. The six-furlong dash brings together the fastest statebreds on the grounds in a field so evenly matched that selecting the favorite may prove as difficult a task as picking the winner.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There will be a lot of talk about the Cardinals – and the Cardinal – at Churchill Downs on Saturday. The first is an unbeaten college football team after nine games, and the second is a handicap with nine fillies and mares.

The undefeated University of Louisville squad will kick off their game at Syracuse at noon Eastern, which should give multi-tasking sports fans plenty of time to focus on the Grade 3 Cardinal Handicap, the ninth of 10 Saturday races at Churchill. First post is 12:40 p.m. Eastern, with the Cardinal set for 4:37.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile typically kicks off the unofficial run to the Kentucky Derby six months later. Here at Betfair Hollywood Park, the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity in December is often a preview of coming attractions for the next spring, too, and the route to that race begins Saturday, with the $100,000 Real Quiet Stakes, in which seven late-developing 2-year-olds will try to step forward.

The 5-year-old mare Down Town Allen and 3-year-old filly Rita Haywood, both coming off stakes wins on last month’s West Virginia Breeders’ Classic program, will test their stamina in Saturday night’s $50,000 My Sister Pearl Stakes at Charles Town.

The 1 1/8-mile My Sister Pearl, for West Virginia-breds, is part of a stakes tripleheader. The co-features are divisions of the Tri-State Futurity, one for fillies and the other for colts and geldings. Each division of the Futurity, which is open to West Virginia- and Maryland-breds drew eight 2-year-olds and will be worth $50,000.

Anytime Magic, winner of stakes in his first two starts, and Epic Electorate, running in a stakes for the first time, are at career crossroads heading into Saturday’s $50,000 Golden Nugget Stakes at Golden Gate Fields.

MIAMI – After winning three straight stakes against open company, including the Grade 3 Spend a Buck Handicap in his last start, Cash Rules has found what figures to be a cushier spot against statebreds in Saturday’s $150,000 Carl G. Rose Handicap at Calder.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Does anybody really want to win the $250,000 Coronation Futurity? Sure, the money’s good, but the nine-furlong route for Canadian-bred 2-year-olds hasn’t produced a high-class winner since A Bit O’Gold in 2003. And the last horse to capture the Coronation along the following year’s Queen’s Plate was Norcliffe in 1975-76.