STICKNEY, Ill. – Chris Block has horses entered in a $15,000 maiden-claimer and a $25,000 claiming race Thursday at Hawthorne, a typical winter-racing day in Chicago, with the temperature forecast to stay below freezing and the racing below allowance-class. His operation based year-round in Illinois, Block has experienced plenty of late-fall days like this.

ALBANY, Calif. – It’s impossible to run any better than Kaili has, but trainer Lloyd Mason believes the 3-year-old filly has barely scratched the surface of her potential.

A Grand Slam homebred for Edward and Theresa DeNike, Kaili won her debut by three lengths on Aug. 15, 2009. She was then freshened and pointed to a race at Santa Anita at the Oak Tree meet, but sore knees and feet prompted Mason to send her to the sidelines.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – From the need for ice scrapers early Monday morning to the sights of bundled horsemen to the whirring of metallic horse trailers flying around Belmont Park, signs were everywhere that winter is fast approaching. Of course the biggest sign of all comes Wednesday, when Aqueduct’s inner track opens for a four-month run.

A steady diet of six-furlong sprints and mile-and-70 or mile-and-a-sixteenth two turn races – mostly for mid-to bottom-level claimers and New York-breds – will punctuate the proceedings through the end of March.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sand Cove, the front-runner for Canadian champion older male honors on the main track this year, will take center stage Wednesday at Woodbine Racetrack in the $125,000 Sir Barton Stakes.

Sand Cove was a beaten favorite after carving out the fractions in each of the last two runnings of the Sir Barton, but he hung on for a share both times.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Broken Dreams was second in her California debut in an optional claimer over six furlongs on turf Nov. 7. As time progresses, that race looks increasingly better.

Broken Dreams was beaten by Reba Is Tops, who returned to win Friday’s Raise Your Skirts Stakes. Broken Dreams was held out of that race in favor of an optional claimer over six furlongs on turf Wednesday, where owner Leonard Lavin and trainer Tom Proctor hope the filly can win for the third time in seven starts.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Once again the possibility clearly exists that horses from the “Stars of Tomorrow” program will be back to make an impact at Churchill Downs in the spring. Few people would be surprised to see any of the top three finishers in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club return next May for the 137th Kentucky Derby, but the brightest prospect for future stardom had to be Kathmanblu, winner of the Golden Rod, the other Grade 2 stakes run here Saturday.

ALBANY, Calif. – The Golden Gate Fields winter/spring stakes schedule has 10 scheduled stakes races highlighted by the Grade 2 San Francisco Mile and Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby.

Five of the stakes will be for 3-year-olds, starting on New Year’s Day with the $100,000 California Oaks for fillies. The $100,000 California Derby is Jan. 15, with the $200,000 El Camino Real Derby on Feb. 12.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Tiz Blessed had kept some good company south of the border, winning on the dirt at Saratoga and finishing fourth in the one-mile Garden State at Monmouth Park prior to shipping here for Sunday’s $152,100 Display Stakes.

But both of those outings had come over dirt surfaces, and Tiz Blessed had to be considered a question mark with the switch to the local Polytrack surface.

Tiz Blessed obviously was unfazed by the new footing, however, as he romped to a 5 1/2-length win under jockey Patrick Husbands in the 1 1/16-mile race for 2-year-olds.

ALBANY, Calif. – Despite three double-digit payouts, including Wise Student at $38.80 and Marsky’s Pride at $25.40, two bettors had all six winners in Golden Gate Fields’s pick six on Sunday, each earning $452,132.20.

The six-day carryover going into Sunday was $350,263, and the pool grew to $997,824 with Sunday’s wagering.

Marsky’s Pride under Julien Couton provided a $25.40 upset in the fourth race, which was the first leg of the pick six.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The wider that Haimish Hy runs through the stretch, the better he seems to perform.

He won the first stakes of his career in the El Cajon Stakes at Del Mar with an outside rally through the stretch, and then topped that performance in Sunday’s $250,000 Hollywood Derby, rallying five-wide to catch 7-5 favorite Sebastian Flyte in the final strides.