The average starters per race at the Gulfstream Park meet is a solid 7.94. The average will likely increase when racing begins on the new Tapeta track beginning the week of Sept. 23. The base of the all-weather track was being laid late last week, and horses will start training over it after the safety rail is installed.

Gulfstream is the first track in North America with three different surfaces: a 1 1/8-mile dirt track, seven-furlong turf course, and mile and 70-yard Tapeta track.

Jockey Silvio Amador was given a three-day suspension by Los Alamitos stewards on Sunday for failing to ride Wicked Sunset to the finish of a $6,250 claiming race at 5 1/2 furlongs in Saturday’s third race.

Wicked Sunset was closing with interest when Amador rose from the saddle as the field passed an infield placing judge’s stand in the final sixteenth. Amador rode 5-2 Wicked Sunset more vigorously in the final strides, but finished three-quarters of a length behind pacesetter Back Beauty ($6.40).

Flightline, the brilliantly fast undefeated 3-year-old, is under consideration for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 6, even though he has yet to appear in a stakes.

Trainer John Sadler said Sunday that he plans to meet with members of the expansive partnership that owns Flightline at the Keeneland yearling sales in coming days to discuss options.

Sadler said a start in a race such as the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship at six furlongs on Oct. 2 is not planned.

“We wouldn’t run before the Breeders’ Cup,” Sadler said.

Zulu Alpha has been scratched from his intended start Saturday in the $1 million Calumet Turf Cup and has been retired from racing by owner Michael Hui, Kentucky Downs officials reported Friday.

An earner of more than $2.2 million from 37 starts, Zulu Alpha will retire to Old Friends in Georgetown, Ky.

Churchill Downs will not award Kentucky Derby qualifying points to any horse that is trained by an individual that is banned by the track for the 2022 running of the race, the track announced on Friday.

The 2021 Grade 2 winners Royal Ship and Soothsay will not race again this season, trainer Richard Mandella said recently.

Royal Ship won the Grade 2 Californian Stakes at Santa Anita in April, but was winless in three subsequent starts, including a second by a head to Country Grammer in the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita in May and a seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 21.

A 5-year-old gelding, Royal Ship was a Group 1 winner in Brazil in 2020.

“We’ll give him a good break,” Mandella said.

Los Alamitos has added a $75,000 stakes for fillies and mares at a mile to the Sept. 19 program, the track announced on Thursday.

The Dark Mirage Stakes has a $50 nomination fee due on Wednesday, with $250 supplemental nominations due on Thursday when entries are taken.

“If we get five or six horses, we’ll use it,” racing secretary Bob Moreno said.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Medina Spirit, preparing for a scheduled start in the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 25, worked six furlongs in 1:11.80 on Friday morning at Del Mar, looking as though he has emerged well from his victory last month here in the Shared Belief.

Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va., had a track record average daily handle of $2.23 million during its recently completed 21-day meet, the track said.

Handle comparisons to previous meets are complicated because Colonial ran only four cards last year before canceling the remainder of its meet due to coronavirus concerns. In 2019, Colonial Downs ran 15 days on a different weekly schedule and averaged $1.17 million in daily handle, nearly half the 2021 average.

Even with the Saturday and Sunday cards at Kentucky Downs still remaining, Joel Rosario already has broken the record for most wins by a jockey at a meet.

Rosario rode 13 winners through the first four days of the meet, including two Thursday. The former record of 12 was held by Rafael Bejarano (2004) and Florent Geroux (2015, 2016).

“We’ve been blessed the days we’ve been here, great opportunities,” said Rosario.

Rosario won five race on each of the first two days of the meet.