Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint winner Hightail was one of 15 horses pre-entered Tuesday in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot. The 1 1/16-mile race for 2-year-olds will be run Nov. 17. It is the centerpiece of the Delta meet in Vinton, La., and it anchors a card of eight stakes worth $2.2 million. The program also includes the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess for 2-year-old fillies, which drew 14 pre-entries Tuesday.

Final entries for both races will be taken next Wednesday, Nov. 14. The fields will each be limited to 10 starters over the six-furlong oval at Delta.

Merit Man, second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint last Friday, will be rested until the new year, with an emphasis on 3-year-old sprints, trainer Bob Hess Jr. said.

In the BC Juvenile Sprint over six furlongs, Merit Man was the 1-2 favorite in a field of five. He led by a length with a furlong remaining, but was caught late by the maiden Hightail, a 15-1 shot trained by D. Wayne Lukas.

After the race, Merit Man scoped cleanly despite racing without Lasix like all other 2-year-olds in the Breeders’ Cup, Hess said.

This much is certain: There will be an autumn meeting at Betfair Hollywood Park for six weeks beginning Thursday and a spring-summer meeting starting in late April.

After that, the future of the historic racetrack is uncertain. There is a chance the property could be sold to real estate developers next year, which would lead to the cessation of racing. Then again, the track could still be running at this time next year.

For the first time in five years, a jockey not named Rafael Bejarano or Joel Rosario has won a riding title at a major Southern California race meeting.

Joe Talamo was the runaway leader at the Santa Anita autumn meeting that ended Sunday, finishing with 37 wins, 15 more than Bejarano.

Rosario, who rides primarily in New York, was not a factor.

For Talamo, 22, the title was his first in Southern California, and first since the 2006-07 Fair Grounds meeting in his first full year of riding.

With a nor’easter forecast to pummel the area starting midday Wednesday, there is a strong probability Thursday’s $75,000 Pentelis overnight stakes at Aqueduct will be run in slop or mud. Such an eventuality would be nothing new for the five fillies and mares entered in the 6 1/2-furlong race, who have collectively won 16 of 20 starts on wet tracks.

Among them is My Wandy’s Girl, a 3-year-old filly purchased last year in Ocala, Fla., who then went to Camarero Race Park in Puerto Rico to win 13 of 17 starts, capped by the Roberto Clemente in late August.

Northern California trainer Jeff Bonde had a good day at the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita on Saturday.

Smiling Tiger, coming off throat surgery and making his first start since running fifth in the Grade 1 Triple Bend at Hollywood Park on June 30, ran third in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at 20-1. The Bonde-trained Unusual Way captured the seven-furlong Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Sprint Preview Stakes in wire-to-wire style in her first start since winning the Wine Country Debutante at Santa Rosa on Aug. 11.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Now that Buff Bradley has achieved all his goals with Groupie Doll, including winning a Breeders’ Cup race, he has an objective with another homebred 4-year-old filly by Bowman’s Band – winning a Claiming Crown race.

Fleur de Lilly, bred by Bradley’s wife, Kim, will be prepping for the $125,000 Claiming Crown Emerald as one of the favorites Thursday in the feature race at Churchill Downs, a $56,000 turf allowance at 1 1/16 miles.

Condiment and My Best Bet, who finished second and third in the one-mile Charlie Palmer at Fresno on Oct. 8, will skip Saturday’s $50,000-added Golden Nugget at six furlongs and run Friday in a one-mile allowance.

Condiment’s trainer Joe Brook said he preferred all along to run his horse in the allowance, and would have headed out of town if the race hadn’t filled.

“If the mile race hadn’t gone, I was set to go to Hollywood Park where there was a first-condition allowance race in the book,” he said.

Jockey Alejandro Medellin rode seven winners at Zia Park on Monday to set a record for wins on a card at the Hobbs, N.M. track. Medellin had nine mounts on the program of mixed racing, and registered five of his wins aboard Thoroughbreds and two on Quarter Horses.

“Everything went perfectly,” said Medellin, 36. “Good horses, good post positions, not many problems in the race.”

Is there a star in the making at Golden Gate Fields?

After her victory in an allowance race Oct. 25, Ciao Bella Luna is undefeated after two starts, and her rider Eric Camacho says, “She has what you want in a 2-year-old.”
 
Ciao Bella Luna is a true family affair filly. She’s homebred for Carol and Dennis Yokum (Car-Den Racing Stable) who is also owned by trainer Dennis Patterson’s wife, Theresa. Patterson’s daughter-in-law Christy Wiede is the filly’s exercise rider and is aboard her every day. Patterson’s son, also named Dennis, is Camacho’s agent.