LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Fields were drawn Wednesday for the 24th annual Claiming Crown, the eight-race series that make up the bulk of an 11-race Saturday program at Churchill Downs.

The Claiming Crown highlight is the $175,000 Jewel, the richest race of the day. Purses for the others range from $150,000 down to $100,000, with all of them run under starter-allowance conditions. Kentucky-bred bonuses are in addition to listed purses.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - All-sources handle at the Belmont at The Big A meet was $238,442,142, down 16.2 percent from the $284,658,894 handled at the 2021 Belmont Park fall meet, according to figures provided by the New York Racing Association.

Ontrack handle was $22,157,088, down 18.7 percent from last fall’s figure of $27,239,297.

Buoyed by his three Breeders’ Cup wins at Keeneland and capped off by a three-win Sunday - including a stakes sweep - at Aqueduct, Irad Ortiz Jr. established a new single-year North American record for earnings by a jockey.

Through Sunday, Ortiz’s mounts have earned $34,628,316, eclipsing his mark of $34,109,019 set in 2019.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Cody’s Wish, who won the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile by a head on Saturday at Keeneland, will remain in training for a 5-year-old campaign, a representative of the horse’s owner and breeder, Godolphin, said.

“He came out of the Breeders’ Cup very well,” said Michael Banahan, Godolphin’s director of bloodstock for the U.S. “He’s sound, healthy, and we’re extremely excited about seeing him race next year.”

Two sports betting propositions are on the ballot in California on Tuesday, but they have about as much chance of succeeding as a 10-team parlay, according to a recent poll.

Prop 26 would allow in-person sports betting at Del Mar, Golden Gate Fields, Los Alamitos and Santa Anita, as well as at Native American casinos. According to a poll published Friday by the UC-Berkeley Institute of Government Studies, the measure was opposed by voters by a margin of 53 to 30, with 17 percent of voters undecided.

Frankie Dettori, arguably the most recognizable rider in the world, is joining the jockey roster at Santa Anita this winter.

Dettori rode briefly in Dubai last winter, and has not ridden at Santa Anita since the 2019 Breeders’ Cup. Dettori won four Breeders’ Cup races at Santa Anita from 2008 to 2016, and spent time at Santa Anita in the early years of his career.

Dettori is scheduled to arrive in California in the days before Christmas, according to agent Ron Anderson, who will represent the 51-year-old rider.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Newgrange led throughout an allowance race at a mile on dirt at Santa Anita on Sunday to win for the first time since the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park in January, and for the first time since he sold for $325,000 at auction in Kentucky in July.

The win is likely to lead to a start in the Grade 3 Native Diver Stakes at 1 1/8 miles at Del Mar on Nov. 27. The $150,000 Native Diver is the leading dirt race for older horses at the track’s autumn meeting, which begins on Friday.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – He didn’t win – this one – but Bill Mott still was beaming after the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland. As the trainer of Olympiad, a distant runner-up to Flightline, Mott was more than happy with how the Classic concluded another sensational day at the office.

“If you could come to the Breeders’ Cup and have a day like that every time, it’d be good,” said Mott. “Yeah, pretty good.”

Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano will head into Breeders’ Cup Saturday at Keeneland with a hot hand after winning five races on opening day of the fall meet Friday at Aqueduct. 

Castellano is named to ride Sterling Silver in the Filly and Mare Sprint, Ivar in the Mile, and Nautilus in the Turf on the Breeders' Cup program. 

LEXINGTON, Ky. - When the Breeders’ Cup is over jockeys John Velazquez and Flavien Prat will be heading West to ride at Del Mar, whose 13-day fall meet begins on Friday.

For Velazquez, who has typically ridden in New York during the fall, it gives him a jump-start for the winter where, for the second year in a row, he will ride at Santa Anita.

“He’s going to ride some for Bob [Baffert], that’s always good,” Ron Anderson, the agent for Velazquez said. “There was nothing that important going on at Aqueduct so we said yes.”