LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Gio Ponti will remain on turf and run in the Breeders' Cup Mile instead of making his first start on dirt in the Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday at Churchill Downs, owner Shane Ryan of Castleton Lyons announced Monday afternoon.

Silent Joy, who was expected to draw in off the also-eligible list and start Friday in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, was transferred to trainer Dale Romans’s barn from Michelle Nihei on Monday and has been withdrawn from consideration for the race.

Silent Joy is owned by Adam Wachtel, Nils Brous, and Danny Gargan. The 2-year-old daughter of Kitten’s Joy won her career debut over the Saratoga turf course on Aug. 25 before finishing fifth, beaten sixth lengths by division leader Winter Memories, in the Grade 3 Ms. Grillo Stakes on Oct. 3.

Trainer Steve Asmussen thought Thiskyhasnolimit had the potential to be a superstar. While the son of Sky Mesa has yet to reach that status, he enters Saturday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in perhaps the best form of his life and is quickly becoming one of the buzz horses on the backstretch.

Jordy Y has not had much experience on the dirt. However, trainer Wayne Catalano said Monday it is “90 percent certain” Jordy Y will run in the $2 million Juvenile Fillies as opposed to the $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf, to which she also was pre-entered.

Catalano was pleased enough with Jordy Y’s five-furlong dirt work on Sunday to make that decision. Jordy Y, a daughter of Congrats, has raced exclusively on synthetic surfaces, winning a maiden and allowance at Arlington before finishing second in the Arlington-Washington Lassie and third in the Grade 1 Alcibiades.

Though Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile will be the first dirt race for J. B.’s Thunder, trainer Al Stall is quite content that his horse has had enough experience over that surface.

The colt’s first seven breezes were over dirt – including his first five at Churchill Downs – before he won his debut on the grass at Saratoga and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity over Keeneland’s synthetic surface. Stall said he chose to race J. B.’s Thunder over those surfaces because he wanted to run the horse around two turns.

There’s a natural tendency to root for the home team, and European racing people tend to favor their own traveling overseas to face foreign competition. Thinking along those lines has Midday a sure winner of the Filly and Mare Turf, Goldikova’s stiffest BC Mile competition England-based Paco Boy, and Bekhabad or Dangerous Midge there to pick up the pieces should Workforce falter in the Turf.

Unrivaled Belle has raced just once at Churchill Downs, a performance her trainer, Bill Mott, on Monday described as “probably her best” this year. She upset 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra in the La Troienne Stakes on the Kentucky Oaks undercard on April 30.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ronny Werner has trained three horses that started in Breeders’ Cup races, so the fact that he has three more ready to go for the 2010 Breeders’ Cup made this week at Churchill Downs memorable. Werner, it turns out, can count himself lucky to be able to remember the week at all. Or even to have an entire head to house a brain to store memories.

On Sunday morning, Werner was doing a routine leg check on horses in his Churchill barn when a filly named Catnandu, politely described by Werner as “pretty ornery,” kicked her trainer. Hard.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It was nearly a year ago, shortly after Blame ended his 2009 campaign with a victory in the Clark Handicap here at Churchill Downs, that trainer Al Stall Jr. mapped out a 2010 schedule with one primary goal, getting to the Breeders’ Cup Classic with a chance to be Horse of the Year.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Oak Tree Racing Association ended its first race meeting at Hollywood Park on Sunday, the conclusion of a tumultuous six months for the organization.

According to a statement released by Oak Tree, the all-sources average daily handle, including simulcast and account wagering, was $7,198,000.

Daily average attendance combining the ontrack audience at Hollywood Park and at simulcast locations through the Southern California was 10,771, according to Oak Tree.