Sizable fields are expected for the three Kentucky Cup races to be run Saturday on the Polytrack surface at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., with Hold Me Back heading a prospective field of at least 10 for the anchor race, the Grade 2, $200,000 Kentucky Cup Classic.

Julien Leparoux, one of a handful of top-echelon jockeys scheduled to ride in the series, has the return call on Hold Me Back, the 3-year-old Giant's Causeway colt who most recently was second in the Aug. 29 Travers Stakes at Saratoga.

Jockey Winston Thompson won his 3,000th race Monday at Sufffolk Downs aboard African Angel in the eighth race.

A native of Jamaica, Thompson, 45, has been riding in New England since 1988 and has been the leading jockey at Suffolk four out of the last five seasons.

"To reach 3,000 means a lot, and it means a lot to do it at Suffolk Downs," said Thompson after African Angel returned $17.20. "All of the people here have helped me get here. I've been riding with them since 1987 and it is like one big family here."

Kentucky Downs, the all-turf track in south-central Kentucky, canceled the last three races of a scheduled nine-race card Monday because of potentially unsafe conditions following heavy rain.

Track president Corey Johnsen said he consulted with jockey Calvin Borel about a problem spot on the track in the vicinity of the five-furlong pole, "where the horses come down that hill and start into the turn. If needed, we're going to have the inner rail put farther out onto the course so as to avoid any problems there."

Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird breezed a half-mile in 47.95 seconds between races Monday at the Downs at Albuquerque, where his trainer, Chip Woolley, has a division of horses. He is scheduled to van out Thursday afternoon to Santa Anita, where he is to run in the Grade 1, $350,000 Goodwood on Oct. 10.

The move from Sunday afternoons to Wednesday-night racing was a shot in the arm for Assiniboia Downs this year.

Preliminary figures show $8.8 million wagered from all sources on the 63-day meeting that wound up last Sunday. The daily average handle was $139,683, up more than 38 percent from 2008.

The all-sources total last year was $6.86 million for 68 days, a daily average of $100,928.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - Regal Ransom opened up a host of next-race options for himself Saturday with his easy win in the , among them the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 7. The Super Derby was Regal Ransom's first start since finishing eighth in the Kentucky Derby, and he set a controlled pace to win the 1 1/8-mile stakes in hand for Godolphin Racing and trainer Saeed bin Suroor.

For the effort, Regal Ransom earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 104.

ELMONT, N.Y. - While owner Paul Pompa Jr. said his ultimate goal with D' Funnybone is to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, the horse came out of his dominant victory in Saturday's at Belmont Park so well that he could run back in the Grade 1 Champagne here Oct. 11.

"He came out so fresh that the Champagne is definitely an option," Pompa said by phone Monday from his Truck-Rite office in Brooklyn. "Our ultimate goal is to win the Breeders' Cup, but he's so fresh and so lightly raced, if we want to get to the Champagne, he's in the right kind of shape for it."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Neil Drysdale had come out on the wrong end of a big-race inquiry here back in 1999, when Hawksley Hill was demoted to fourth place after being the apparent winner of the Woodbine Mile.

And, although Drysdale has captured a pair of Woodbine Miles and a Canadian International in the interim, he experienced an unfortunate case of deja vu here Sunday when Marsh Side finished first in the but was knocked down to fourth after being found guilty of interference in the stretch run.

There was an unmistakable theme of nostalgia threading its way through the Kentucky Cup turf series Saturday at Kentucky Downs, as winners of all three stakes events were classy old-timers who overcame either a lengthy layoff or mediocre form . . . or both.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The racegoing public had not seen Ventura since her second-place finish in the seven-furlong Madison at Keeneland back on April 9.

Neither had jockey Garrett Gomez, until he got a look at Ventura in the walking ring here Sunday prior to the Woodbine Mile.

"She looked bigger, and stronger," said Gomez.

Ventura, a homebred 5-year-old mare who had finished second in the stakes last year, proceeded to overpower her male rivals with a ninth-to-first move that carried her to a one-length victory in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile.