LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Keeneland will hit the ground running next weekend, hosting a slew of Win and You’re In stakes toward the Breeders’ Cup, which the Lexington track will host for the third time Nov. 4-5.

Veteran jockey Brice Blanc has retired from riding and began work as a racing official at Santa Anita this week.

Blanc, 49, rode his final race at Del Mar in late July and had his last win on Evening Sun in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields in April. He will work in Santa Anita’s racing office.

Blanc, who returned from a yearlong layoff caused by injury last October, had hoped to ride until his 50th birthday in January, but opted to cut short his riding career.

Assiniboia Downs wrapped up its 2022 meet on Wednesday night with the second-highest handle in the Manitoba track's history. There was $55,326,730 bet during the 50-day meet.

The final card attracted $2,448,634 in wagering. The highlight was a mandatory payout of the ASD Jackpot Pick 5 pool, which started with a $535,091 carryover. The total pool reached more than $2 million and returned $1,434 for $1.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Four years ago, trainer Uriah St. Lewis pulled off an improbable upset when Discreet Lover won the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at 45-1, beating the likes of Diversify, Mendelssohn and Thunder Road.

In 2019, St. Lewis won the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup at Parx with 50-1 Adventist. Last year, the St. Lewis-trained Informative won Monmouth Park’s Grade 3 Salvator Mile at 79-1. In August, Informative pulled another upset at Monmouth, taking the Grade 3 Iselin Stakes at odds of 14-1.

Forte, the Grade 1 Hopeful winner, was not entered in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes as expected, leaving the one-mile race for 2-year-olds a bit more wide open.

It was unclear why Forte was held out of the race. The Breeders’ Futurity, a two-turn race at Keeneland on Oct. 8, could be a back-up plan.

Without Forte in the race, favoritism figures to be up for grabs between Gulfport and Verifying.

Be Your Best, convincing winner of her two starts, including the P.G. Johnson Stakes at Saratoga, heads a field of six entered for the Grade 2, $200,000 Miss Grillo Stakes for juvenile fillies going 1 1/16 miles on turf.

Be Your Best, who will break from post 6 under Jose Ortiz, will take on maiden winners Georgees Spirit, Free Look, Pleasant Passage, Alluring Angel, and Im Just Kiddin.

The Miss Grillo awards its winner a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Thin White Duke, Dancing Buck and Fauci, the top three finishers from the Lucky Coin Stakes at Saratoga, meet again in the Grade 3, $200,000 Belmont Turf Sprint, which drew an evenly matched field of 12.

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The Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission on Wednesday denied an appeal by the trainer Juan Vazquez of a suspension that will run through January 2025.

Vazquez, a trainer based in Pennsylvania who put up gaudy win percentages early in his career, was suspended this summer by the commission after being accused of shipping a mare in January from Belmont Park in New York to Parx Racing outside of Philadelphia despite the mare having an acute case of laminitis. The mare, Shining Colors, was euthanized three days after the journey.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Hot Rod Charlie and Art Collector head a six-horse field that also includes 2022 Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike in the Saturday feature at Churchill Downs, the Grade 2, $500,000 Lukas Classic.

Hot Rod Charlie, with Tyler Gaffalione to ride, was assigned post 5 in the Lukas Classic, a 1 1/8-mile race that shares the Saturday spotlight with the Grade 3, $300,000 Ack Ack. The one-mile Ack Ack is a Win and You’re In toward the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland.

Chris Griffin, the race caller at Parx racetrack outside Philadelphia, will become the full-time announcer at Monmouth Park in New Jersey starting next year, Monmouth announced on Wednesday.

Griffin will take over for Frank Mirahmadi, who has been Monmouth’s race caller for eight years. Mirahmadi accepted a position as the full-time race caller beginning next year at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., whose meet runs concurrent with much of the Monmouth meet.