LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainers often dread drawing post 1, with some exceptions.

“When you’re going a mile and three-eighths, and you’ve got some speed in a paceless race, it can work in your favor,” said John Paul Pucek, who will send out the rail filly, Ratoath Special, in the turf marathon that serves as the Thursday feature at Churchill Downs.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It’s been tough sledding for pick-six players, so tough that during the latest span of six racing days, just two winning tickets were sold, each worth a cool $246,256 in a triple-carryover situation last Friday.

The Delta Downs Jackpot has hit the jackpot.

The Grade 3, $1 million race at Delta Downs in Vinton, La., will have a Grade 1 winner in the field for the first time Saturday after trainer Bob Baffert on Monday committed Drill, the Del Mar Futurity winner, to the 1 1/16-mile race. The Jackpot was inaugurated in 2002.

Drill won the Del Mar Futurity in September and then was second in the Grade 1 Norfolk at Santa Anita one start later before finishing an uncharacteristic 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs. He will add blinkers for the Jackpot, Baffert said.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Reade Baker also sent out the favored City Wolf in search of his fifth straight win here in this past Saturday’s $161,600 Autumn, only to watch the 4-year-old colt finish eighth of 10 under regular rider Emma-Jayne Wilson.

“I thought I had a better chance to win a stakes than at any time in my career,” said Baker, who trains the Kentucky homebred City Wolf for Stronach Stable.

“But the race ended up being a speed-rail race. He comes from behind and was stuck on the outside, and he seemed to fight Emma more this time than previously.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Any day now – maybe even Friday, his 46th birthday – Steve Asmussen will become just the fifth trainer in North American racing history to hit the 6,000-win milestone. Asmussen, who had 5,995 career victories at the end of action Sunday, was scheduled to run two horses Monday, none Tuesday, and seven Wednesday, including two at Churchill.

The late Dale Baird is the all-time leading trainer in wins, followed by Jack Van Berg, King Leatherbury, and Jerry Hollendorfer.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Wise Dan, winner of three rich stakes since the summer, will bypass the River City Handicap on Saturday in favor of the Nov. 25 Clark Handicap, trainer Charlie Lopresti said.

Wise Dan had been named the 122-pound highweight for the Grade 3, $100,000 River City, which goes at 1 1/8 miles on turf. The Grade 1, $500,000 Clark goes at the same distance on the main track. Other known prospects for the Clark at this early date include Flat Out, Ruler On Ice, and Mission Impazible.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For years, Calvin Borel has taken it easy in December, riding the occasional weekend while otherwise decompressing from 11 months of hard work.

This year, however, Borel will be taking just a little time off after the Churchill Downs fall meet, which ends Nov. 27, and will ride in south Florida at Gulfstream Park, where the meet opener is Dec. 3, exactly a month earlier than what had been tradition for many years. Borel’s agent, Jerry Hissam, told Churchill officials that Borel will begin riding at Gulfstream on Dec. 15.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It has been a while between drinks for Cool Bullet. Trainer Steve Margolis knows he was asking a lot of the 4-year-old gelding when he pitted him against the likes of Aikenite and Flashpoint last month in the Grade 3 Phoenix Stakes, a race that resulted in a respectable effort from Cool Bullet, albeit a ninth straight defeat.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Weekend Romance appears to have found a cozy spot Wednesday night at Woodbine in the $150,000 Jammed Lovely Stakes, a seven-furlong sprint that drew just five other Ontario-bred 3-year-old fillies.

Weekend Romance won her first three 2011 outings, all in Ontario-sired company, earning a Beyer Speed Figure in the low 80s on each occasion.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Tu Endie Wei had a bad experience suffering her first defeat in Keeneland’s Alcibiades, as she became agitated by a large and noisy crowd in the paddock and left her race in the starting gate. So her trainer, Reade Baker, took Tu Endie Wei back to school and the Kentucky-bred 2-year-old filly responded with a smashing victory under regular rider Jim McAleney in Sunday’s $152,100 Glorious Song Stakes.