ELMONT, N.Y. - Icon Project, who would have been the favorite for Saturday's Grade 1, $600,000 Beldame at Belmont Park, will skip that race and instead run in the Grade 1, $500,000 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 11, trainer Marty Wolfson said Wednesday.

The decision was made Tuesday night after owner Andrew Rosen, who was in France, and Wolfson talked by phone. By running in the Spinster, it will give Icon Project a start over a synthetic surface. The Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic on Nov. 6 will be run over Santa Anita's Pro-Ride surface.

ARCADIA, Calf. - Mine That Bird was not expected to dazzle anyone Tuesday morning in his first autumn workout over the Santa Anita racing surface, and the Kentucky Derby winner performed to expectations.

Jockey Joe Talamo and Mine That Bird came onto the track in a busy period after the 8 a.m. break. They broke off at the five-eighths, went the first quarter in 25.20 seconds, the half in 49.60, and finished in 1:01.80 over a track that produced relatively slow times.

Trainer Chip Woolley was not looking for anything more.

With barely half the number of races run this year as compared to last, Kentucky Downs closed its 2009 meet Monday with a predictably sizeable downturn in gross handle.

PSTICKNEY, Ill. - With Florida-based trainer Marty Wolfson pointing It's a Bird to the Meadowlands Cup and instead sending the far less accomplished You and I Forever to Chicago, it appears the starting highweights for Saturday's Grade 2, $500,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup will be the veterans Awesome Gem and Jonesboro.

MIAMI - Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum does not race horses at Calder very often, but his colors were represented by both Quiet Emarati, third in the Needles Stakes, and Speedy King, an easy debut winner, on Saturday's Festival Preview program.

Quiet Emarati and Speedy King, both 3-year-olds, are trained by Michael Yates. Yates may be best known for having originally purchased Eclipse Award winner Stardom Bound as a yearling and then pinhooking her to owner Charles Cono and trainer Christopher Paasch for $375,000 as a 2-year-old at the March 2008 Ocala Breeders' Sales.

Jockey Don Simington long ago locked up the Louisiana Downs riding title and has maintained a double-digit advantage in the standings for a good portion of the meet that closes Sunday. But last week he hit a significant milestone on his road to his second straight title.

"Our goal coming in is to do as well as we can and last week we surpassed what we did here last year," Simington said of reaching 102 wins, his total as the meet's leading rider in 2008. "To be able to surpass what we did last year has made it a great meet."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Gail Cox already had been enjoying a career year, mainly due to the emergence of Simply Splendid as a solid stakes performer.

But Cox put the icing on her cake here at Woodbine last Saturday when she sent out Jesters Jazz, Gladwyne, and Tierra del Tigre and greeted each one back in the winner's circle.

"I don't know if I've even run three in a day before, let alone won three," said Cox. "It's pretty exciting."

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland Racecourse has redesigned its traffic and parking patterns in an attempt to alleviate the chronic problems that tens of thousands racegoers typically have encountered at its race meets.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The Thoroughbred meet had been uncomfortably shoe-horned into the Meadowlands's calendar in recent seasons.

The 2007 meet was fragmented, an accommodation to the Breeders' Cup that fall at Monmouth Park, the Big M's sister track.

Last year was a tight squeeze, a frenzied six-day race week dashed off before an end-of-year Standardbred meet.

A surprisingly large field of 13 3-year-olds was entered Tuesday for this weekend's Grade 2, $150,000 Ohio Derby, although the trainers of some horses have said they intend to cross-enter in the Indiana Derby, which offers a far bigger purse on the same day.