STICKNEY, Ill. – Inez Karlsson, a 2008 Eclipse Award finalist as an apprentice rider and one of the more popular jockeys in Chicago, will ride her first race since Sept. 18, 2010 on Sunday at Hawthorne.

Karlsson’s career was halted by a painful recurring gynecological condition known as endometriosis. One cure for the condition is becoming pregnant, which is what Karlsson did last fall. Her daughter, Sophie Rose, is four months old, and Karlsson, 28, will be mixing motherhood and horse-backing during this comeback.

MIAMI – The conditions for the two graded stakes races carded for next Saturday at Calder couldn’t be more different. The Grade 3 Fred Hooper Handicap will be decided at 1 1/8 miles over the main track while the Grade 2 W.L. McKnight Handicap is scheduled to be run at 1 1/2 miles on the grass.

Despite the diverse nature of the two events, three horses were actually cross-nominated to both races, including the multiple graded stakes winner Mambo Meister. The others are Where’s Sterling and Shellback.

Del Mar has made a retroactive payment of $1.37 million to owners whose horses earned prize money in overnight races during the summer meeting, the track announced on Friday.

Before the meeting ended in September, the track announced that a retroactive payment would be made, estimating the payment to be approximately $1.5 million. The final amount was not confirmed until recently, following the tabulation of mutuel handle figures from various sources.

The $1.37 million payment equates to 10 a percent purse increase, the track said in a statement.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – If Flat Out had lived up to his role as the 7-2 favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, he wouldn’t be running back nearly three weeks later in the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs.

But he didn’t, and he is. Now it looks like Flat Out, fifth behind Drosselmeyer in the Nov. 5 BC Classic, might well be the favorite again when heading a terrific field of 3-year-olds and upward next Friday in the Grade 1, $500,000 Clark.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Enhancements to the juvenile filly division in California will not necessarily emerge from the $100,000 Moccasin Stakes on Sunday at Hollywood Park.

Five allowance fillies with hazy credentials, including speedster Woebegon, race seven furlongs in the Moccasin, race 3. It is a nice little field, with a nice big purse. One could argue, however, the best fillies running Sunday at Hollywood are the maidens in race 1.

Rapid Redux’s run for the record books will take place Monday night at Mountaineer Racetrack in West Virginia’s panhandle.

The 5-year-old Rapid Redux, currently tied with 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta and the New Mexico-bred mare Peppers Pride with 19 consecutive victories, will bid for his 20th straight win against nine opponents in the eighth race, a $5,000 starter allowance with a purse of $14,900 at a mile.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Delightful Mary, who was Canada’s champion juvenile filly of 2010, made a smashing return to action here Thursday afternoon.

Making her first appearance in more than seven months, Delightful Mary trounced older fillies and mares while knocking out her third allowance condition. Her three-length win at 6 1/2 furlongs netted a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 87.

“That’s pretty good, especially considering the layoff,” said Mark Casse, who trains the Florida-bred Delightful Mary for owner John Oxley.

Santa Anita has increased the purses for eight stakes and cut the purse for one important race at its winter-spring meeting, which runs from Dec. 26 through April 22, 2012.

The richest races of the meeting will be worth $750,000 – the Santa Anita Handicap on March 3 and Santa Anita Derby on April 7. The purse for the Santa Anita Derby is down $250,000 from 2011, but equal to the prize offered from 1997-99, and from 2001 through 2010.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Bret Calhoun said he doubted Speedacious could win following a 3 1/2-month layoff when she returned to action Nov. 11 at Churchill Downs in an allowance sprint, a race the trainer hoped would set the filly up perfectly for an expected run on the Dec. 10 Louisiana Champions Day program at Fair Grounds.

Calhoun was right. Speedacious got beat a half-length.

“I wasn’t real right,” he laughed.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario — The Sovereign Award for the champion female sprinter will be up for grabs Sunday at Woodbine, when contenders Ariana D, Atlantic Hurricane, and Embur’s Song clash over seven furlongs in the Grade 3, $150,000 Bessarabian Stakes.