NEW ORLEANS, La. - No one else from Fair Grounds seemed to be hauling horses to Delta Downs for the races there Thursday night, so trainer Al Sider loaded up What An Honor, a $10,000 maiden claimer, onto his own trailer and drove the four hours from New Orleans to Delta himself.

The first race went off, What An Honor crossed the wire second at odds of 2-5, and Sider, on the backstretch a few minutes later, thinking he'd picked up a decent check, suddenly found out he'd been disqualified to ninth. And then he had to drive home, getting in around midnight. What fun.

ARCADIA, Calif. The comeback victory by Ever a Friend in an optional claimer on the hillside turf course Thursday left trainer Mike Mitchell elated but cursing his luck that the fragile 6-year-old missed the Breeders Cup at Santa Anita on Saturday.

A bone chip in an ankle, detected after a second-place finish in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile in May 2008, left Ever a Friend sidelined for more than 17 months. Mitchell ran out of time to have Ever a Friend ready for the Breeders Cup and has instead chosen the $300,000 Citation Handicap at Hollywood Park on Nov. 27.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Favored Mobthewarrior outran longshots Bold Canadian and D's Legend Storm to notch his first stakes Wednesday night at Woodbine in the $127,400 Frost King.

Mobthewarrior rallied four wide from mid-pack to prevail by a length and a half over Bold Canadian, who finished a half-length in front of pacemaker D's Legend Storm. Legal Review wound up fourth in the 11-horse field.

Mobthewarrior returned $6.10 in the seven-furlong sprint for Ontario-sired 2-year-olds. He covered the distance in 1:23.53, and banked $75,000 for owner Andrew Fredericks.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Last year, four of the six horses who earned automatic Breeders' Cup berths with their successes in Win and You're In races at Woodbine followed up with appearances on Santa Anita's two-day Breeders' Cup program.

But the Breeders' Cup Challenge series had less of an impact in its second season here, with only two of the six winners racing this weekend at Santa Anita.

Bridgetown, who prevailed in the Grade 3 Summer over one mile on turf, will be taking his place in the lineup for Saturday's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.

NEW ORLEANS - Pop quiz: How many horses does Eclipse Award-winning trainer Steve Asmussen have for the 14 Breeders' Cup races this weekend at Santa Anita?

Answer: One. Jungle Tale in the Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Shall we shed a tear for Mr. Asmussen? We shall not. After winning 16 stakes races during the 2007-2008 Fair Grounds season, Asmussen won eight more at the 2008-2009 meet, and his Fair Grounds barn this winter will once again be brimming with high-class types.

One of them, you might have heard of: Rachel Alexandra.

In an era when impetuous owners change trainers like they change socks, the decade-long association between the Gatsas family and the husband-and-wife trainer team of John and Tonja Terranova has endured. Through triumph and tragedy, the Gatsas-Terranova relationship has strengthened personally and professionally.

Handle and attendance figures at the recently concluded 33-day Belmont Park meet plummeted by double digits compared with 2008, with officials blaming the impact of rainy weather for the declines.

Louisiana Downs reopened its backstretch to horses on Wednesday, five days after evacuating the 250 animals based there when a nearby levee was in danger of giving way. Officials had been monitoring the levee and called for the horses to be moved off the grounds last Saturday over concerns the levy could break following a month of significant rainfall.

But on Wednesday, with "no danger left in any levee breaches," the horses were let back into the stable area, said Trent McIntosh, the director of racing operations for Louisiana Downs.

Walter Peltier, a longtime horsemen at Turf Paradise, died Oct. 29. He was 87.

Peltier began training horses in 1937 and was involved in various aspects of the industry throughout his life, including horse transportation and blacksmithing.

During his training career, Peltier handled Call Call, a one-time track record-holder at old Longacres for 1 1/16 miles. He also trained Melmitch, winner of the 1968 Phoenix Gold Cup. Melmitch won 37 times in his career and held numerous track records under Peltier's guidance.

NEW ORLEANS - It felt quiet, really quiet, out on the normally bustling Fair Grounds track Tuesday morning. Not long after 9, with plenty of time left to train, the racetrack was nearly deserted. Even right after the renovation break, at 8:30, traffic remained relatively light. Partly, this was because Tuesday is the slowest training day of the week. Partly, it was because Fair Grounds launches an 84-day meet Friday, an earlier start date than ever. Even during the long era of Fair Grounds's Thanksgiving opening, Kentucky horsemen didn't arrive in full force for a couple weeks.