LEXINGTON, Ky. – Aikenite has developed quite a tradition at Keeneland, albeit not one as old as the Phoenix Stakes. The 4-year-old Dogwood Stable star has an unmistakable knack for running well over the local Polytrack surface, having posted daylight scores in an allowance race here last fall and the Grade 2 Commonwealth Stakes last April.

Three major races in the Breeders’ Cup Turf division this past weekend provided little help sorting out the contenders for the $3 million race.

In New York, where the going in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic resembled a bog, Cape Blanco won his third U.S. Grade 1 turf race this year – and promptly was retired with an injury. The horse he narrowly beat, Dean’s Kitten, has never won a graded turf stakes and probably was one of the few animals who didn’t mind the extreme course conditions. Winchester, fourth in the 2010 Turf, was beaten almost 20 lengths.

For the first time since early summer 2008, mighty Goldikova has lost two races in a row, and while the mare is far from washed-up, her defeat in the Prix de la Foret on Sunday in Paris lends hope to her potential rivals in the Breeders’ Cup Mile next month at Churchill Downs.

While most of the hopefuls for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint already have had their final preps, there’s still one more race that should have an impact on the composition of the lineup for the seven-furlong Filly and Mare Sprint: the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes, a Win and You’re In event on the blockbuster Saturday card at Keeneland.

Daddy Nose Best will train up to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf off his deceptively good effort in the Grade 3 Summer Stakes at Woodbine and could be a live longshot in the Grade 1 stakes.

The Sept. 17 Summer, which was run over a mile around one turn, featured a slow pace that benefited the top two finishers, Finale and Excaper. Daddy Nose Best, who rallied for third under Julien Leparoux, was the only one to make up significant ground.

Scott Blasi, assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen, said Daddy Nose Best will probably go into the Nov. 5 BC Juvenile Turf off the layoff.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Look at it once, then look again. Then keep looking. A horseplayer could go crazy trying to nail down a sure winner Friday in the $400,000 Darley Alcibiades Stakes, a Grade 1 race that drew a large and extremely well-matched field of 2-year-old fillies for its 60th running on opening day at Keeneland.

Trainer Joan Petrowski appears to be on the verge of becoming a leading trainer for the first time in a career she said began “sometime over 35 years ago.” Going into the final three days of racing at Northlands Park, Petrowski has won 46 races, three more than Robertino Diodoro, who was the leading trainer at Northlands last year.

Having won Win And You’re In challenge races toward the Breeder’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5, Creative Cause, Drill, and Currency Swap have essentially run their way into the starting gate.

Now, it’s time for a couple more to get their turn Saturday, when the Grade 1 Champagne is run at Belmont Park and the Grade 1 Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity is contested at Keeneland. Both races are Win and You’re In challenge races, meaning the winners of each earn an entry-paid automatic berth into Juvenile.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – After winning the Beldame Stakes in New York on Saturday, Havre de Grace returned to trainer Larry Jones’s barn at Delaware Park on Sunday, and by Monday she had been sent here, to Keeneland, where she will do most of her serious training leading up to the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 5 at Churchill Downs.

In real estate, they say, the most important factors are location, location, location. In horse racing, it’s timing, timing, timing.