LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It would be too simplistic to label Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies a showdown between the East Coast’s My Miss Aurelia and the West Coast’s Weemissfrankie. The race goes deeper than that.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There once was an equine pipeline running from Europe to California and pumping a steady stream of stakes-class grass horses into Bobby Frankel’s stable.

Frankel won six Breeders’ Cup races during his Hall of Fame career, two of them in the Filly and Mare Turf, with Starine in 2002 and Intercontinental in 2005. Small wonder Chad Brown had proper training tools at hand when Stacelita joined his string late this summer after spending most of her life in France.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Elusive Kate will attempt to return quick dividends to her new owner, Terry Yoshida, when she starts as the favorite in Friday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Churchill Downs.

Yoshida purchased Elusive Kate, a Group 1 winner at Longchamp in France on Oct. 2, privately from her former owners – Robert and Janice McNair and Rachel Hood, the wife of trainer John Gosden – in a deal that was not finalized until Monday. Gosden will continue to train Elusive Kate, who will race in the name of Yoshida and the McNairs’ Magnolia Racing Stable on Friday.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Dubai Calling, one of the most improved runners at Woodbine this year, should have an ideal setup in Friday’s eighth race, a first-level allowance sprint for fillies and mares.

Dubai Calling crossed the wire on top in four straight races, after being acquired by trainer Ross Armata in the spring. Her streak began June 16, when she polished off $12,500 nonwinners-of-two opposition.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – If the tote board means anything, Mike Puype made the right call for Turbulent Descent after the filly dominated the Grade 1 Test Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 6. Puype decided not to give his stable star another race leading up to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and put her through a rigorous training schedule in California instead.

Mid-morning Monday, a tall man in a dark coat and baseball cap leaned against the wall next to one of the offices in Barn 41 on the Churchill Downs backstretch. He chatted occasionally with two companions, who turned out to be a groom and an exercise rider. The man wore glasses and a couple days grizzle on his face, and he looked a lot like the trainer John Shirreffs. Thing is, this was Breeders’ Cup week, and if that was John Shirreffs, where were the 48 photographers, 87 reporters, and the throngs of other hangers-on who should be surrounding him?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tuesday’s Breeders’ Cup workout report from Churchill Downs would be better called the “gallop” report since nary a single Cup contender turned in an officially timed trial either over the main track or turf course throughout the four-hour training session which began under clear but once again near-frigid conditions.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ontrack customers for the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs this weekend will be able to use a mobile wagering app that was launched only recently at nearby Keeneland Racecourse, according to Breeders’ Cup officials.

The app, developed by United Tote, allows ontrack customers to bet on their phones through a dedicated wireless network at the track using funds deposited through a cash card. Keeneland made the app available at its fall meet, and the service was generally praised by users, though there were some complaints about failed connections to the network.

Wasted Tears, the Texas-based mare who developed into one of the top turf females in North America, has been retired, said her breeder, owner, and trainer, Bart Evans. She has been sent to a Lexington, Ky., farm and will be bred next year to a stallion that has yet to be determined.

“I’m kicking things around, looking at what makes a best match,” Evans said of his stallion search. “I like looking at them physically, to see how they would complement” her.

Northern California fans will have two rooting interests during Friday’s Breeders’ Cup races.

Trainer Jeff Bonde will run Blacky the Bull in the new Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint, while Art Sherman will saddle Ultra Blend in the Ladies’ Classic.

“Any time you get a chance to play at this big level, you’re thankful,” said Bonde, who saw his Smiling Tiger run third in last year’s Sprint.