ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Slight favorite Gypsy Ring wore down second choice Paso Doble in the stretch to notch his first stakes win in the $125,000 Overskate on Wednesday night at Woodbine.

Gypsy Ring tracked Paso Doble and Bug’s Boy, who vied through slow fractions in the seven-furlong sprint for Ontario-sired runners. Gypsy Ring joined Paso Doble up front at the eighth pole, and they proceeded to duke it out before Gypsy Ring surged late to prevail by a neck in 1:21.54. Race for Gold was a distant third in the eight-horse field.

The field for the Flower Bowl ballooned to eight horses but the one to beat remains Stacelita, the Beverly D. winner who drew the outside post for the 1 1/4-mile turf race on Saturday at Belmont Park.

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Cape Blanco arrived in New York early Wednesday morning and was expected to be in quarantine until Thursday morning at Aqueduct before shipping over to Belmont, where he will be heavily favored to win the $500,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational on Saturday at  Belmont Park.

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Though the Kelso Handicap is the only Grade 2 among the six stakes s Saturday at Belmont Pak, it drew a Grade 1 field led by Uncle Mo, last year’s 2-year-old champion. Uncle Mo, who finished second by nose in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop in his first start off a four-month layoff, will break from post 3 under John Velazquez.

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Havre de Grace will break from the outside post in five-horse field entered to run 1 1/8 miles in Saturday’s Grade 1, $350,000 Beldame Invitational, which will run as race 9, just prior to the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.

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ARCADIA, Calif. – For the first time in two years, autumn racing returns to Santa Anita on Friday. The 24-day meet begins full speed ahead.

The racing surface is new again, horse inventory is up, the Players’ Pick five is in, and Breeders’ Cup berths are on the line in seven graded stakes opening weekend. The only thing missing is the Oak Tree Racing Association banner. Will anyone notice?

“I don’t think there’s much difference that the fans are going to see,” Santa Anita president George Haines said. “The racing here in fall speaks for itself.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer David Fawkes believes Big Drama will benefit from having a tough race going into the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He just wasn’t looking for something this tough.

Big Drama, last year’s champion sprinter, heads a fantastic field of fast sprinters set to contest six furlongs in Saturday’s Grade 1, $350,000 Vosburgh Invitational, unquestionably the most competitive of the six graded stakes races to be run at Belmont Park.

When Larry Jones took over as the trainer of Havre de Grace earlier this year, he was immediately struck by how effortlessly she did everything. Here is a man who has trained the likes of Hard Spun, Proud Spell, and Eight Belles, and yet he says of Havre de Grace that “this is the first time in my life I thought I had the total package.”

“She is some kind of animal,” he said.

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When Chief of Affairs draws the rail, the results tend to be golden. Friday night, his connections will be hoping for more of the same when the horse breaks from the fence in the $100,000 David A. Vance Stakes at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.

The Vance, for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs, is a new race this season. Named for the former Remington executive, it drew a diverse cast that includes Tend and Native Ruler, the one-two finishers in a Mountaineer stakes in August, and Humble Destin, the runner-up in the $50,000 Temperence Hill earlier this month at Louisiana Downs.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Acclamation drew the rail for Saturday’s $250,000 Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita, but that may be as close as the top older horse in California gets to starting in the Grade 1 race.

Trainer Don Warren said on Wednesday that Sunday’s $150,000 Clement Hirsch Invitational over 1  1/4 miles on turf remains the more likely start this weekend for Acclamation, the winner of four consecutive graded stakes.

“We’ll enter in both races,” he said. “I like the Sunday race myself, but we wanted to see who was in there. We’re ready for either race.”