LEXINGTON, Ky. – Larry Rivelli had to skip opening day at Hawthorne to run a horse instead on a warm sunny day at Keeneland. Tough break, dude.

“We picked our spot with this one,” a smiling Rivelli said after getting his photograph taken in the Keeneland winner’s circle after sending out favored Breaking Ball to win the fourth race on the Friday opener of the 17-day fall meet.

Alpha and Questing, both beaten at Parx in $1 million races in their last starts, returned to the work tab Friday morning, each breezing four furlongs over the synthetic surface at the Greentree training center in Saratoga.

Alpha, the Travers co-winner who finished sixth in the Pennsylvania Derby, went four furlongs in 48.40 seconds, according to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. Alpha is pointing to the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Graham Motion will be a player in all three turf stakes scheduled to be run on Monday’s Columbus Day card at Belmont Park.

In the Grade 3, $150,000 Pilgrim Stakes, for 2-year-old males, Motion will send out the Irish-bred Cerro. In the Grade 3, $150,000 Miss Grillo, for 2-year-old fillies, Motion sends out Three Hearts. Finally, in the $150,000 Pebbles Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, Motion has Ski Holiday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Tyler Baze needed less than three hours to find the first winner of his comeback.

Returning from a suspension for substance-abuse problems, Baze won with his second and final mount at Santa Anita on Friday – the longshot Warren’s Sugarbuzz ($112.60) in the sixth race over six furlongs.

Baze was reinstated from a suspension last month by Los Alamitos stewards and began working horses in late September. He was suspended for failing to take a Breathalyzer test at Del Mar in September 2011.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – On the first day that state veterinarians in Kentucky were responsible for administering pre-race shots of furosemide, one of the favorites in Keeneland’s seventh race was mistakenly given the diuretic and ended up racing on the anti-bleeder medication, finishing second.

MIAMI – It is a common perception that George Handy, at the age of 89, is the oldest trainer still practicing his craft in North America. Truth is, Handy’s not even the oldest trainer still plying his trade on the Calder backstretch.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Beholder won a six-furlong allowance race by 11 lengths in a quick 1:09 at Santa Anita on Thursday, leaving Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella with a choice of Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 2 for the 2-year-old filly.

Mandella said Friday that Beholder is “50-50” for the $500,000 Juvenile Sprint over six furlongs or the $2 million Juvenile Fillies over 1 1/16 miles. The filly could be pre-entered in both races on Oct. 22, with a decision on a race necessary by Oct. 29, when entries are taken.

MIAMI - Gourmet Dinner has returned to his roots. A two-time Florida Stallion Stakes winner in 2010, Gourmet Dinner shipped back to Calder from New York earlier this week to prepare for the Grade 3 Spend a Buck Handicap on Oct. 13.

Gourmet Dinner is coming off a seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Woodward at Saratoga. His last local appearance came on Oct. 16, 2010 when he lost his quest to sweep the Florida Stallion Stakes after finishing second in the In Reality.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Hearts of Red may not have been able to hang with the big girls when it came to route races or the turf, but she may have a future as a closing sprinter on dirt.

Hearts of Red rallied from last in a six-horse field to win a second-level allowance going six furlongs at Saratoga on Aug. 29. Sunday, it appears Hearts of Red will get a pace dynamic that will allow her to do the same thing when she runs in the $80,000 Dream Supreme Stakes at Belmont Park.

ARCADIA Calif. – Winding Way was not a lucky little lady in the city of Del Mar.

When the undefeated filly broke last from the rail as the favorite in the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo, trainer Carla Gaines’s mood changed from glad to sadness.

“I was just hoping to hit the board,” she said.

Winding Way, a front-runner, faced a seemingly impossible task. Then she did what good horses do – overcome adversity. Last on the turn, she rallied to an improbable victory that established her as one of the top female sprinters in California after just three starts.