ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita buried the main attraction Friday way up in race 3. It is too bad, because the Grade 3 Sen. Ken Maddy is a good race with Breeders’ Cup ramifications, and would have been a terrific feature positioned in the traditional race-8 slot.

Instead the Maddy goes early, before the pick-six sequence, which begins a race later. The placement is odd. Unzip Me deserves favoritism, but she is not a lock against a tough rival in Tanda.

Santa Anita director of racing Mike Harlow expected to take heat for scheduling the Maddy early.

If you want a glimpse of the three Win and You’re In winners for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, you’d better look elsewhere during the next week or so, because it’s unlikely any of them will be at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5.

Ben’s Cat is “in” after taking the Turf Monster at Parx Racing on Labor Day. The only problem is he’s not BC nominated, and so his legendary trainer, King Leatherbury, is openly soliciting backers.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The second-place finish by Self Preservation in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 3 has left trainer Ben Cecil expecting a winning performance in Sunday’s $250,000 Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita.

The Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes, run over 1 1/16 miles for 2-year-old fillies, is a vital West Coast prep for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.

Perhaps more than any other Breeders’ Cup event, the Marathon does not have a definitive prep race. There is good reason for that. For it to be a real prep, a prelude to the 1 3/4-mile Marathon, it would have to be run at a distance of at least 11 furlongs. In today’s game, the horse or horseman who would be willing to run in a prep race that far on dirt four or five weeks before a race this far would be few and far between.

Three of the five Win and You’re In stakes have been run for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, which has been upgraded from Grade 2 to Grade 1 status this year.

State of Play took the Grade 2 With Anticipation at Saratoga, to remain unbeaten in two starts for trainer Graham Motion and owner Team Valor International the same connections as Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom.

Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla., has scheduled 25 stakes races for its 2011-12 meet offering approximately $2.6 million in total purses, the track said on Wednesday.

The purse total is a $175,000 increase over the 2010-11 meet, due to $25,000 increases to seven stakes, including the $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes, a Grade 3 race restricted to 3-year-olds scheduled for Feb. 4 that is often used as a prep for Tampa Bay’s most prominent Kentucky Derby stepping-stone, the Tampa Bay Derby.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Stay Thirsty and Uncle Mo both drew post 3 in their respective races for Saturday’s stakes extravaganza at Belmont Park.

Stay Thirsty will break from post 3 in a seven-horse field drawn for the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup. His primary challenger, Flat Out, will break from post 6. Others entered include Ice Box, Rodman, Drosselmeyer, A. U. Miner, and Birdrun.

A $75,000 stakes at Delaware Park might seem an unconventional path to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, but for Grade 1 Spinaway winner Grace Hall, the race is perfectly logical.

Unbeaten in two starts, Grace Hall will run Saturday at Delaware in the Blue Hen Stakes, an ungraded route at a mile and 70 yards that trainer Anthony Dutrow considers ideal.

Cambina is a multiple stakes winner against 3-year-old fillies this year, a season highlighted so far by a dead-heat win in the Grade 1 American Oaks at Hollywood Park in July.

Trainer Jeff Bonde thinks she can accomplish more, beginning in Saturday’s $250,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Santa Anita. If Cambina runs well against older fillies and mares in the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon, Bonde will target the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf over 1 3/8 miles on turf at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.

The first meeting of Alaura Michele and Slip Along Band, who are leading American-based candidates for the Grade 2, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 4, could come Sunday at Belmont Park. Both are possible for the Grade 3, $100,000 Miss Grillo.

Alaura Michele is 2 for 2 on turf, with her biggest win on the surface coming last out in the P.G. Johnson at Saratoga on Aug. 31.