ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Stakes winner Moonshine Mullin returns from a layoff on the final Friday card of the Woodbine meet, in a second-level allowance with a $62,500/60,000-claiming option. He competes without a selling price because of the nonwinners-of-three clause in the conditions of the 1 1/16-mile race.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Tres Borrachos, who finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in his last start, heads the prospective field for the Grade 3, $100,000 Native Diver Handicap at 1 1/8 miles for older horses on Saturday.

Tres Borrachos owns four lifetime wins, three of which have come at Hollywood Park. He is 3 for 12 on the main track here, 1 for 22 in every other situation. His biggest win here came in the Swaps Stakes in 2008.

The fields for the richest Thoroughbred races of the Zia Park meet have been set, with Thirtyfirststreet and Awesome Bet headlining Saturday’s $150,000 Zia Park Derby and Imco Spirit defending his title against shippers Skip a Smile and Matto Mondo in Sunday’s $200,000 Distance Championship.

Zia, the Hobbs, N.M., track that operates a mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, will close its season Sunday.

Thirtyfirststreet, who won the $200,000 Lone Star Derby in May, is invading from Southern California for the Zia Park Derby.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The complexion of Thursday’s first-level allowance feature scheduled for a mile over Aqueduct’s inner dirt track could be impacted by whether or not Wednesday’s first-level turf allowance feature was moved to the dirt due to rain.

Five of the nine horses carded for Thursday’s $53,000 allowance race were entered as main-track only starters for Wednesday’s eighth race, which would be run at a mile over the inner should the race come off the turf.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Afleet Again was one of the major upsetters at this year’s Breeders’ Cup, capturing the Grade 2, 1 3/4-mile Grade 2 Marathon at 41-1.

On Sunday, Afleet Again will be looking to double up at Woodbine in the 1 3/4-mile Valedictory, the traditional closing-day feature for 3-year-olds and upward that offers Grade 3 status for the first time and a purse of $150,000.

“We’re packing our bags right now,” said trainer Butch Reid, from his Parx Racing base in Pennsylvania on Tuesday morning.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Three members of this year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint lineup, Musical Romance, Her Smile and Pomeroys Pistol, are among the 26 horses nominated to the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl to be run a week from Saturday at Gulfstream Park. This will be the second edition of the six-furlong Sugar Swirl to be decided at Gulfstream in 2011. Sugar Swirl I was won by Tar Heel Mom, another member of this year’s BC Filly and Mare Sprint field, last winter.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – B.J. Wright’s memory of a star quarterback on a Pop Warner football team he coached years ago paid off with a pair of touchdowns over the weekend, when Wright and that quarterback, better known now as trainer Mike Pender, combined to win the Hollywood Derby with Ultimate Eagle and the Citation Handicap with Jeranimo at Hollywood Park.

Surely some Kentucky horseplayers wanting to decompress from all the frantic action at Keeneland and Churchill Downs the last couple of months will pay less attention as racing shifts to Turfway Park. That’s okay. Nobody ever said Turfway is Keeneland or Churchill, but the Florence, Ky., track still has its own niche and its own group of devotees, both local and in the simulcast market.

Four months of winter racing begin Thursday evening at Turfway, with a nine-race card and a 5:30 p.m. post time.

When was the last time that a jockey decided to make Northern California his riding home the same year he won the Belmont Stakes?

The answer is last week, and the rider is Jose Valdivia Jr., who rode in Northern California in 1996, finishing second in the Bay Meadows winter meet.

That Valdivia, who was riding in Southern Califorinia after a stint back east, has opted to settle in Northern California tells a lot about the state of horse racing today.

“Every track struggles for horses,” said Valdivia.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Though La Sombre has finished second far more often than she has won, the consistency of her performances, and an advantageous inside draw, make her the one to beat in Thursday’s featured seventh race at Hollywood Park, a six-furlong turf sprint for California-bred females.

The $48,000 race is an optional claimer, for first-level allowance horses as well as runners entered for a $25,000 claiming price. Only the longshot Kahlua Mist is entered for a tag.