INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Medici Code and Ryehill Dreamer return from lengthy layoffs in an optional claimer on turf at Hollywood Park on Friday night, a race that neither of their trainers see as a must-win situation.

Medici Code, 6, has not started since finishing second in the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Turf Championship at Santa Anita last October. He emerged from the race with a hock injury that required surgery, trainer Darrell Vienna said Wednesday.

“It took a long time to get better,” Vienna said.

The Breeders' Cup Sprint lost yet another top contender when trainer Todd Pletcher revealed Discreetly Mine will miss the race because of an injury to his left stifle. Division leader Majesticperfection was the first major defection from the race when retired because of injury late this summer.

Pletcher said it took several days to diagnose the exact nature of Discreetly Mine's problem but received the bad news from Dr. Larry Bramlage on Wednesday.

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – This will not be a typical autumn for 2-year-old Quarter Horse racing at Los Alamitos.

First Down Illusion, who won the Ed Burke Million Futurity in June, could finish only third to The Goodbye Kisser in the $425,600 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ Futurity last Saturday night.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The most important race of Smiling Tiger’s brief career is Saturday’s $250,000 Ancient Title Stakes at Hollywood Park.

If he runs well, a start in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6 awaits. If he runs a disappointing race, owners Philip Lebherz and Alan Klein and trainer Jeff Bonde will have to regroup and will likely stay in California.

Bonde, for one, is ready for a journey to Kentucky.

“We’re hoping he comes with a big one,” Bonde said. “He needs to run a good race.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Velvet Moss will add Lasix following a layoff in Friday’s Woodbine feature, and she should be prominent if the 6 1/2-furlong, first-level allowance remains on the grass.

Velvet Moss, 3-year-old filly, who is trained by Reade Baker for Stronach Stable, won her only start at 2, and was a nonthreatening sixth in her season debut in the May 7 Inaugural Stakes at Presque Isle Downs.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – FallStars Weekend will hit its apex Saturday when five graded stakes are run on an 11-race card at Keeneland, including the richest race of the meet, the $600,000 Shadwell Turf Mile in which Gio Ponti figures as a solid favorite.

FallStars Weekend consists of nine graded stakes, all of them potential preps toward the Nov. 5-6 Breeders’ Cup. Two will be run Friday and two Sunday.

Here is a quick rundown of the five Saturday stakes:

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Poof Too has been entered in Keeneland’s Grade 1, $400,000 Alcibiades, a 1  1/16-mile stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Friday.

But Poof Too, a Kentucky-bred who is trained by Mark Frostad, will be staying home to run in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Mazarine, which also is for 2-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles.

“I just wanted to keep the option open,” said Mark Frostad, who trains Poof Too for owners John Fielding and Frederick Hertrich.

“I think she’s pretty nice.”

Santa Anita is tentatively scheduled to run four days a week in January and February of 2011, one fewer day per week than in 2010, track president George Haines said Tuesday.

The track’s application for a 76-day winter-spring meeting from Dec. 26 to April 17 will be presented to the California Horse Racing Board at its next meeting Nov. 9.

Gone, and mostly forgotten. That has been the story of Courageous Cat’s 2010 campaign, but Courageous Cat might remind people just how good he can be when he returns to action Saturday in the Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland.

The Shadwell also is expected to include 2009 champion Gio Ponti as well as improving Bernard Baruch winner Get Stormy, and the race will help determine the breadth of U.S.-based contingent for the Breeders’ Cup Mile. In California, 3-year-old Sidney’s Candy will attempt to repeat his smashing turf debut at Del Mar in the Oak Tree Mile at Hollywood Park.

New Normal established herself as a top contender for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf this summer by winning her maiden and the Grade 3 Natalma Stakes over Woodbine’s grass course, but it’s by coincidence that she’s an expert on the surface. When she was ready to debut in early August, trainer Mark Frostad said it just happened to be a turf race that was in the condition book, and the rest is history.