LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Those looking to see how speed is holding on Breeders’ Cup Friday at Churchill Downs should get an early barometer in the third race with the running of the Grade 3, $100,000 Ack Ack Handicap.

A 1 1/16-mile dirt race, the Ack Ack drew a field of seven and will be relatively short on pace, with the classy Gladding and Nacho Friend being the only customary front-runners. Should Gladding cruise on the lead, the race could potentially foreshadow success for speed horses in dirt Breeders’ Cup races later in the day.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – If there is a major stakes race for young colts at Churchill Downs, the partners in Skychai Racing are becoming a regular part of the action.

Six months ago, the group was represented in the Kentucky Derby with Twinspired, the Bluegrass Stakes runner-up, who would go on to finish 17th in the race. And now Skychai is back, this time with an entrant in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, having purchased a minority interest in Kentucky Cup Juvenile winner Hansen in late October.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Breeders’ Cup’s Friday and Saturday cards will once again be available this year to customers of Betfair, the British bet-matching operation, but none of the event’s 15 races will be simulcast in Hong Kong, according to the organization’s simulcasting consultant.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Turbulent Descent, the 3-year-old filly who figures as one of the heaviest favorites on the 15-race Breeders’ Cup card as the solid choice in the Filly and Mare Sprint, is entered as Hip No. 47 on Sunday at the Fasig-Tipton sale in Lexington, Ky., although her actually being walked through the sales ring is not expected to happen.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In stark contrast to 2010, this Breeders’ Cup week has so far been a no-drama turf-a-rama.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With all the serious work done for Saturday’s $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, there was just a little bit of fine tuning to take place at Churchill Downs on Wednesday, when Uncle Mo returned to the track after getting a day off, and Game On Dude and Rattlesnake Bridge both made their first appearances on the track after arriving Tuesday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When the Breeders’ Cup officially begins Friday with the inaugural running of the $500,000 Juvenile Sprint, the race will carry a familiar Breeders’ Cup theme – Bob Baffert has a prominent contender.

Baffert, a seven-time Breeders’ Cup-winning trainer, has the 6-5 morning-line favorite in Secret Circle, one of nine horses Baffert is expected to run at Churchill Downs on Friday and Saturday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jockeys in Breeders’ Cup races will continue to be allowed to make pre-race comments to television reporters during this year’s two-day event, one year after comments made by jockey John Velazquez about the pre-race condition of his mount Life At Ten led to an investigation and consideration of charges against the rider and the state’s chief steward.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It will be slots of fun at Aqueduct on Friday as the New York racing scene shifts nine miles or so down the Belt Parkway and takes a quantum leap into a new era.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tearing the shell from the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf won’t take taxing effort. Twelve were entered in the $2 million race to be run around three turns and over 1 3/8 miles, and either Stacelita, Announce, Nahrain, or Misty for Me seems likely to win. But the nut at the race’s heart feels far tougher to crack.