California horses have a successful history in the Kentucky Cup. Class horses such as Silver Charm, Point Given, Captain Steve, and Reraise have had a major impact on the Turfway Park series, although participation from West Coast stables has waned somewhat in recent years, owing primarily to the declining purse structure of the event.

Trainer Robertino Diodoro got off to a slow start to the current meet at Northlands Park but he has been hot lately and goes into the final stretch of the season with 40 wins, one more than Joan Petrowski. Diodoro, who won his first Northlands training title last year, has a couple of live horses entered in a $15,000 claiming race for fillies and mares that will serve as Friday’s feature.

Honorable Lady and Come Home Quick appear to have strong chances of winning the six-furlong sprint that drew six horses and goes as the third race.

Fifteen jockeys and the Jockeys’ Guild western regional manager Darrell Haire met with Golden Gate Fields stewards Sunday to discuss the possibility of reducing the minimum suspension for a riding infraction from three days to two days.

The jockeys suggested to stewards Dennis Nevin, Darrel McHargue, and John Herbuveaux that a two-day suspension is fair with the current three- and four-day race weeks and with smaller fields than in the past.

While many of the 2-year-olds who ran well in the Arlington-Washington Lassie and Futurity here at Arlington on Sept .10 will move on to races at Keeneland, trainer Larry Rivelli has something different in mind for Lassie runner-up Essence of Bubbles. Essence of Bubbles will soon head south to Delta Downs, where she will start Oct. 12 in the $150,000 My Trusty Cat, a two-turn, seven-furlong race that’s a prep for the $500,000 Delta Princess on Nov. 12.

“If she runs one-two in that next race, I’ll run her back in the Delta Princess,” said Rivelli.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Giant Oak, still seeking his first win since the Grade 1 Donn Handicap on Feb. 5, will make his next start Oct. 8 in the Hawthorne Gold Cup, trainer Chris Block said.

Block, in fact, will have two horses in the $500,000 Gold Cup, since he also intends to start Washington Park Handicap winner Mister Marti Gras in the race. Giant Oak is one of three nationally known horses pointing for the signature race of the Hawthorne season, with Apart and Awesome Gem also expected for the 1 1/4-mile dirt race.

Ian Black's barn also was in action in suburban Philadelphia last weekend, and Stormy Lord, who was saddled by assistant trainer Jeff Bowen, was a 9-1 upsetter under Justin Stein in the $250,000 PTHA President’s Cup at 1 1/8 miles on the turf.

“I was delighted,” said Black. “He was able to sit off them. I was surprised he could do that, off that slow pace.”

Rahystrada, fresh from a dominating score in the Grade 3 Kentucky Cup Turf, could make his next start in the Grade 1, $1.5 million Canadian International at Woodbine on Oct. 16, trainer Scooter Hughes said Tuesday.

“I know it’s reaching pretty high, but he’s doing awfully well right now,” said Hughes. “We’ll be keeping tabs on the race in Canada, and if we end up not going, we might just run in the [Oct. 20] Sycamore at Keeneland.”

Arthur’s Tale was hardly on the Triple Crown trail long enough to have fallen off of it.

After a winter disappointing in stakes races run over Aqueduct’s inner track, Arthur’s Tale broke through with a solid second-place finish in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct in April.

The result put Arthur’s Tale on the bubble as far as graded stakes earnings went to get into the Kentucky Derby. But any Derby dreams were shattered a few days after the Wood, when Arthur’s Tale was diagnosed with a stress fracture in the cannon bone of his left foreleg.

Willcox Inn, who won two of the three legs of the Mid-America Triple for 3-year-olds at Arlington Park, heads a lineup of 13 3-year-olds entered Tuesday for Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Kent Stakes at Delaware Park.

The Chicago-based Willcox Inn, trained by Mike Stidham, registered daylight victories in the Arlington Classic and Grade 2 American Derby before finishing fourth last time out in the Grade 1 Secretariat. The 3-1 choice on the track’s morning line, he brings along regular rider Robby Albarado and will break from the far outside in post 13.

Shotgun Gulch has put herself under consideration for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint following her fast-closing, third-place finish in the Grade 2 Masters at Presque Isle Downs. She is now back home in Oklahoma following the Pennsylvania race run Sept 10 and has been getting a few days of freshening at the farm of her breeder, owner, and trainer, C.R. Trout.

“We’re looking at the Breeders’ Cup,” Trout said. “It would be the same kind of mares she’s run against other places.