Frazil, a 5-year-old gelding who began his campaign last January running for a $35,000 claiming tag, ended his season by becoming a stakes winner in Saturday’s $61,750 Gravesend Handicap at Aqueduct.

King and Crusader, whose only previous win came against $25,000 maiden claimers, outdueled even-money favorite Glib in deep stretch to pull a 16-1 upset in the $75,000 Maryland Juvenile Championship, the closing-day co-feature at Laurel Park.

After six straight losses – four as the betting favorite – Chamberlain Bridge was moving toward twilight. The horse turns 8 in a couple weeks. Once a claimer, Chamberlain Bridge rose to the top of the sport, winning the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint in 2010. But as the recent losses piled up, even Chamberlain Bridge’s trainer, Bret Calhoun, wondered whether his horse still had his mind in the game. 

Like Adios Charlie, Algorithms was also coming off a lengthy vacation when closing out his 2011 season here at Gulfstream Park on Friday. And like Adios Charlie, Algorithms earned himself the opportunity to move into loftier company this winter after remaining undefeated with a very professional one-length decision over the previously unbeaten Consortium in the afternoon’s co-featured third race.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Stanley Hough feared Adios Charlie might have been a work away from his best race when he returned from more than a five-month layoff in Friday’s second-level optional $62,500 claiming feature at Gulfstream Park. And in light of his performance, just imagine what Adios Charlie might have done if he had been totally fit.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jockey Patrick Valenzuela reiterated that he has retired from riding and apologized for missing his mounts at Hollywood Park last month at a hearing before Hollywood Park stewards on Saturday.

Valenzuela was summoned to appear before the stewards through a formal complaint filed by the California Horse Racing Board to discuss his absence on Nov. 17. Valenzuela said his absence was caused by an emergency involving his fiancee’s family in Kansas.

A pair of 3-year-old sprinters who excelled in stakes company, one early in the year and the other in the second half of 2011, will clash for the first time in Tuesday’s $75,000 Valley Forge Stakes at Parx Racing.

J J’s Luckytrain, winner of the Grade 3 Bay Shore in early April and the listed Miracle Wood in late February, will return from a 3 1/2-month absence against Poseidon’s Warrior, a three-time stakes winner since July 30, in the six-furlong Valley Forge.

Twice the Appeal, winner of the Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby but unraced since finishing 10th in the Kentucky Derby, may start in the $150,000 Sir Beaufort Stakes over a mile on turf on Dec. 26.

Trainer Jeff Bonde said on Friday that Twice the Appeal is “50-50” for the Sir Beaufort.

“He’s been seven-eighths and we’re getting pretty close,” Bonde said of Twice the Appeal’s recent workouts. “Right now, I’m just thinking.”

Turbulent Descent, the winner of two Grade 1 races earlier this year, worked six furlongs in 1:12.20 at Hollywood Park on Saturday, leading trainer Mike Puype to predict a victory for her next start, the $300,000 La Brea Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 31.

“She’ll redeem herself on the 31st,” Puype said. “I have no doubt about it.”

Westover Wildcat, who began his 4-year-old campaign in January by winning a third-level optional $40,000 claimer at Parx Racing, will try to end his season the same way in Monday’s featured eighth race at the suburban Philadelphia track.

Locally based with trainer Tony Dutrow, Westover Wildcat is the logical choice going six furlongs under the exact conditions in which he scored by a half-length as the even-money favorite on Jan. 4. He is among four horses in the field of 10 entered for the optional $40,000 claiming tag.