The Big Fresno Fair opens a nine-day run Thursday to mark the end of the Northern California fair racing season.

For years, Fresno was a stand-alone meet, running a couple of months after the other fair meets and giving a brief respite to racing at Golden Gate Fields. But this year, the San Joaquin Fair in Stockton ran for two weeks heading into the Fresno meeting, and some horses that in the past would have raced at Fresno may have run at Stockton instead.

ARCADIA, Calif. –The drive from Del Mar to Hollywood Park covers about 110 miles and takes less than two hours – if a person leaves early and beats the notorious Los Angeles area traffic.

Jockey Brice Blanc knew the road well in August. He made the drive three times to work the turf miler Mr. Commons for trainer John Shirreffs.

Blanc would rise early, travel to Hollywood Park and return to Del Mar in time for afternoon races. All of that for about a minute’s worth of work.

“It was a good minute,” Blanc said last weekend.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Trainer Charlie Lopresti said Tuesday that he will enter Wise Dan with the intent of running the star gelding Saturday in the richest race of the Keeneland fall meet, the Grade 1, $750,000 Shadwell Turf Mile.

Lopresti said the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita remains the primary goal for Wise Dan, whose last six races have resulted in five victories, several of them jaw-droppers.

Before heading back to Kentucky, trainer Dale Romans watched his multiple Grade 1 winner Dullahan work five furlongs in 1:00.44 over the Belmont main track Sunday morning. Dullahan is being pointed to Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Jamaica for 3-year-olds on the turf.

Romans had hoped to work on the grass, but turf works were postponed from Sunday to Monday due to the course condition.

Romans was pleased with the way Dullahan was “reaching out” in his work. Others pointing to the Jamaica include Amira’s Prince, Cogito, King Kreesa, Summer Front, and Unbridled Command.

At Saratoga, Breeders’ Cup Classic candidate Mucho Macho Man worked three furlongs in 34.72 seconds over a muddy Oklahoma training track Monday morning, his first breeze since finishing second behind To Honor and Serve in the Woodward on Sept. 1.

Though the track was wet, trainer Kathy Ritvo though it safe enough to begin breezing toward the Breeders’ Cup.

“He had a good time, he was feeling good,” Ritvo said. “We just let him do it on his own. He worked great and came back super.”

Algorithms, one of the early stars of the 3-year-old division before being sidelined in February with a leg injury, worked three furlongs in 37.26 seconds over Belmont’s training track Monday morning.

Algorithms, who won his first three starts including the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park in January, could resurface before the year is over either in New York or at Gulfstream Park.

Though he earned an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint by virtue of his victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Vosburgh, The Lumber Guy is being considered for both the $1.5 million Sprint and the $1 million Dirt Mile, trainer Mike Hushion said.

Hushion said he and owner Barry Schwartz would size up the competition for both races before making a definitive decision.

Flower Bowl 1-2 finishers Nahrain and Zagora appear headed to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

Nahrain, second in the Filly and Mare Turf last year, earned her spot in the race by winning Saturday’s Grade 1 Flower Bowl by a half-length over Zagora.

Roger Varian, trainer of Nahrain, returned to Newmarket on Saturday night, but no decision yet has been made on whether the filly will stay in the United States to train up to the Breeders’ Cup or return to Newmarket.

Driven by a 9 percent increase in out-of-state betting on its live races, Arlington Park ended its 2012 meet Sunday with a solid overall gain in average daily handle compared with the 2011 season.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Shug McGaughey will ship Joe Hirsch Turf Classic winner Point of Entry to Southern California with confidence, knowing that his horse will get a course firmer at Santa Anita than the one he ran on Saturday at Belmont Park.

Point of Entry ran his winning streak to five straight – and three consecutive Grade 1’s – with his 1 3/4-length victory in the Joe Hirsch, run on yielding turf that his connections didn’t think he particularly liked.