Under a heady ride by Pedro Alvarado, Kaweah Princess scored an upset in the $98,200 Grade 3 Ballerina for fillies and mares at Hastings on Saturday.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Smiling Tiger is bound for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6 after a hard-fought win in Saturday’s $250,000 Ancient Title Stakes at Hollywood Park.

Ridden by Russell Baze, Smiling Tiger ($9.20) won the Grade 1 Ancient Title by a half-length over a fast-closing Supreme Summit. E Z’s Gentlemen finished third. Dancing in Silks, the winner of the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, could only finish sixth in the field of seven.

STICKNEY, Ill. – Hey, this McLaughlin guy seems to know what he’s doing.

New York-based trainer Kiaran McLaughlin sent two horses to Hawthorne a week before last. Redding Colliery won the Hawthorne Gold Cup on Oct. 2, and late Saturday afternoon, Yankee Fourtune cruised to a front-running score in the Grade 3, $150,000 Hawthorne Derby.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The opening half-mile of Saturday’s Grade 1 Champagne Stakes went in 45.92 seconds and the heavy favorite, Uncle Mo, had 22-1 longshot I’m Steppin It Up lapped on him.

For an ordinary 2-year-old making just his second career start, this might have taken something out of him. In the next half-mile it became evidently clear that Uncle Mo is no ordinary 2-year-old.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The $150,000 Oak Tree Mile at Hollywood Park on Saturday was more of a prep for the $100,000 California Cup Mile on Oct. 30 than the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Gio Ponti flexed the muscles of a multiple Eclipse Award winner Saturday when gliding to victory without even feeling the whip in the richest race of the Keeneland fall meet, the $600,000 Shadwell Turf Mile.

With Ramon Dominguez aboard, Gio Ponti relaxed off the early pace in the Grade 1 Shadwell before rallying between rivals and finishing a deceptively easy length before Society’s Chairman in a field of six older horses. He returned $3.60 as the favorite.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Trainer Al Stall has long known he trains one of the top handicap horses in America in Blame. And after Saturday’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, he can feel with confidence that he also has one of the nation’s top juveniles, too, in J. B.’s Thunder.

Making just the second start of his career, J. B.’s Thunder made short work of the Breeders’ Futurity field, taking command from the start and quickening away from the opposition to score a four-length victory over Santiva.

 ELMONT, N.Y. - When trainer Michelle Nihei saw the first half of Saturday’s Grade 1 Jamaica Breeders’ Cup Handicap go in 50.48 seconds, and her 3-year-old Prince Will I Am was eight lengths back, she wasn’t loving her chances to win.

 “That just terrified me,” Nihei said. “I smelled death at that point.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – Just because the Breeders’ Cup is going to be held on a dirt surface this year doesn’t mean the California-based horses used to running exclusively on synthetic surfaces are going to be at a disadvantage.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Proviso did her best Zenyatta impersonation Saturday in the Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady at Keeneland, appearing in danger of being beaten in midstretch, only to unleash a powerful closing kick to secure yet another prestigious victory.

As she had in winning the Diana, Just a Game, and Frank Kilroe Mile earlier in the year – all Grade 1 races - Proviso didn’t win by much, but impressed with a half-length score over longshot C.S. Silk.