ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Crown’s Path notched his first stakes victory in the $125,000 Sir Barton on the final Wednesday night card of the Woodbine meet, which ends Sunday.

Crown’s Path, under Gerry Olguin, rallied from fourth in the two path, and then split horses at the sixteenth pole en route to a one-length win over favored J J for Dave. The front-running Strangrthanfiction weakened to finish another length back in third in the seven-horse field of Ontario-sired runners. The final time was 1:44.01.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The comeback victory by Smash in the third race on Sunday should have him on target for the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds on Santa Anita’s opening day Dec. 26, trainer Bob Baffert said.

“That’s what we’re pointing for,” Baffert said after Smash ran 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.79 to defeat a tenacious Centralinteligence, who also is expected to point to the seven-furlong Malibu after losing to Smash by a half-length.

Smash is owned by Kaleem Shah, whose good sprinter Irrefutable died after the Underwood on Saturday.

NEW ORLEANS - Only 39 horses have been entered for Saturday’s 13^th edition of the Claiming Crown, the lowest total in the event’s history. Just five races, another historic low, will comprise this year’s Claiming Crown after a sixth scheduled race, the $75,000 Rapid Transit - which drew only five pre-entrants - failed to attract enough entries to make it onto Saturday’s program.

Thanks to three supplemental nominations, Saturday’s $65,000 Garland of Roses Stakes will go with a five-horse field.

Of the 18 horses nominated, only Cinco de Mayo Mio, absent from the races since May, and Ms Vanenzza, who has not run since September, entered the six-furlong Garland of Roses.

The racing office scrambled to fill the race, getting Isn’t She Grand, a recent starter allowance winner at Parx; Afaaf, last in a Nov. 18 turf race, and C.C.’s Pal, third in the Grade 2 Go for Wand last Friday, to enter.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Ramon “Mike’’ Hernandez officially retired from training Wednesday, passing the mantle of oldest active trainer on the backside of New York Racing Association tracks to Frank “Pancho’’ Martin, who turns 86 on Saturday.

NEW ORLEANS – Okay, so the Keeneland Polytrack played sizzlingly fast many October afternoons during the fall meet this year. Still, what Applauding pulled off Oct. 14 was amazing.

A 2-year-old filly making her career debut, Applauding raced six furlongs in 1:07.76, the fastest three-quarter mile time by .54 of a second recorded during Keeneland’s synthetic-surface era. What does Applauding do for an encore? We will see in race 6 on Friday at Fair Grounds, an entry-level allowance race also open to $50,000 claimers that attracted six entrants.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Carlos Martin on Wednesday was preparing to say goodbye to more than half his stable, as approximately a dozen horses he trains for Flying Zee Stables were about to head to Maryland for that outfit’s dispersal to be hosted by Fasig-Tipton at Timonium.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – An encouraging effort in her first two-turn race looks as though it has set up Sunburn to break through her first allowance condition in Friday’s featured seventh race at Hollywood Park.

After five sprints, Sunburn stretched out around two turns on Nov. 6 at Santa Anita and finished second in a one-mile grass race behind Secret Code, who came out of that race to win again. All that bodes well for Sunburn on Friday, when she returns in the same allowance condition for California-breds, this time going 1 1/16 miles on Hollywood Park’s turf course.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – A delay in transporting injured jockey Daniel Vergara to a local hospital after he was injured on Saturday at Hollywood Park has prompted Darrell Haire, the local representative of the Jockeys’ Guild, to look into the matter and present the findings to the California Horse Racing Board at its next monthly meeting.

She’s All In has always been a useful filly as a winner of 9 of 18 starts. But she seems to have stepped up her game in recent times, and on Friday night will be seeking her fourth consecutive win when she defends her title in the $50,000 Ladies on the Lawn at Remington Park.

The one-mile race for Oklahoma-bred fillies and mares was scheduled for turf, but it is being run on the main track after last week’s decision to call off turf racing for the remainder of the meet.