STICKNEY, Ill. – The good news at Hawthorne Race Course this fall? Handle has ticked modestly up from the fall-winter meeting last year, and, thanks in part to four-day race weeks this season, Hawthorne is awash in horseflesh. The quality of those horses, however, has fallen steeply compared to past meetings. Saturday’s card looks about typical, with the lone allowance race for Illinois-bred entry-level allowance horses.

When All American Futurity winner Mr Piloto starts in Saturday’s 11th race at Los Alamitos, there will be two trials left for the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity for Quarter Horses.

The 12-race program at Los Alamitos on Saturday is dedicated to 400-yard trials for the Los Alamitos Two Million. The 10 fastest times, regardless of finishing positions, will earn berths for the final Dec. 10.

Already a stakes winner in Panama and Canada, Golden Moka looks to break through in the United States when he faces six rivals Saturday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Discovery Handicap for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct.

Golden Moka has the rail in the 1 1/8-mile race.

The chestnut colt, a modest $8,000 yearling purchase at Keeneland in 2008, is 4 for 5 in his brief career.

He swept all three races last year in Panama, including a Grade 3 stakes. Golden Moka lost training time earlier this year when he got sick after shipping to Canada and trainer Brian Lynch.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – He is not exactly revealing trade secrets, but jockey Alonso Quinonez has a plan for how to ride Premier Pegasus in Saturday’s $100,000 Hollywood Prevue Stakes.

“I think it will be easy to get the lead and then he can relax,” Quinonez said. “I shouldn’t say that. Now, the other jockeys will know.”

Quinonez has ridden Premier Pegasus to wins in both the colt’s two starts – a 44-1 upset in a maiden race at Del Mar over 5 1/2 furlongs on July 24 and a front-running win in the Jack Goodman Stakes over six furlongs here Oct. 23.

MIAMI – There are no stakes races on Saturday’s program at Calder but there are certainly plenty of stakes-quality horses entered in the afternoon’s eighth event to be decided under money allowance conditions at 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Chirac, making the third start of his comeback, tops the field Saturday in the $70,000 Frisk Me Now Stakes as the Monmouth Park season comes to a close.

This is the final weekend as the meet concludes Sunday.

Chirac will try to regain the form that made him a star here last season. He won four times at Monmouth in 2009, including the Grade 3 Iselin Stakes by a rousing 6 3/4 lengths.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mac Benson, who turned 80 this past summer, has wintered his horses at Payson Park for more than 20 consecutive years. But that streak is about to end as Benson, who along with his partner, Barb Przedrzymirska, owns a home within hailing distance of the Florida training facility, will not be taking any horses south after the meeting ends up here Dec. 5.

“Truthfully, I’m looking forward to it,” said Benson, who has been training horses for more than 50 years and was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2002.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Five of the 11 fillies in the Mrs. Revere Stakes won their last races, including three in stakes, while three more starters exit a rugged edition of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup.

In sum, it’s another tough top-to-bottom group in the $175,000 Mrs. Revere, a 1 1/16-mile turf race to be run for the 20th time Saturday at Churchill Downs.

After Cathy’s Crunches won the Golden Gate Debutante two weeks ago, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer thought she might make her next start in Southern California. But when the Golden Nugget, a $50,000 six-furlong stakes for 2-year-olds, didn’t fill last week and was brought back Saturday, Hollendorfer took advantage of the opportunity and will run the filly against the boys.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Field Commission and Fatal Bullet, the last two Canadian champion sprinters, will meet over six furlongs Saturday at Woodbine Racetrack in the $150,000 Kennedy Road Stakes.

Field Commission captured the Grade 2 Nearctic Stakes last fall, before ending up second in the Grade 3 Kennedy Road, efforts that helped him to ice the Sovereign Award.