MIAMI - Smooth Air earned himself a trip to the Breeders' Cup next month at Santa Anita with an easy 3 3/4-length victory over Dynhocracy in Saturday's $100,000 Needles Stakes. The Needles highlighted Calder's Festival of the Sun Preview card that included three other stakes.

The Needles marked Smooth Air's first start on grass, although trainer Bennie Stutts Jr. indicated Smooth Air would return to the main track for the Breeders' Cup in either the Classic or Dirt Mile. Smooth Air is owned by Brian Burns's Mount Joy Stables.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The wet conditions in New York on Saturday prompted the scratches of three prominent horses from Grade 1 stakes at Belmont Park.

Timber Reserve, a third-level allowance winner at Saratoga, scratched out of the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup and instead will run in Friday night's Meadowlands Cup, trainer John Kimmel said.

Unbridled Belle, last year's Beldame winner, will not seek a repeat in Saturday's $600,000 Beldame and instead will run in next Sunday's Spinster at Keeneland, trainer Todd Pletcher said.

Turf Paradise will hold a remembrance service on Thursday for friends of track announcer Luke Kruytbosch. Kruytbosch, the voice of Turf Paradise since 1993, died in July at the age of 47.

The service, which is being held the day before the opening of the 2008-2009 season, is scheduled for 1 p.m. in the Turf Club Terrace. Keynote speakers are to include Kruytbosch's longtime friends and horse owners Mike Pegram, and Mike Chamberlain, who is also the track announcer at San Houston.

Jess Jackson, the majority owner of Curlin, will donate $100,000 to Anna House, a day care facility located on the grounds of Belmont Park. Jackson's wife, Barbara Banke, was scheduled to make the presentation Saturday morning, hours before Curlin was to run in the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup, attempting to become North America's all-time money earner.

FORT ERIE, Ontario - Long after most racing fans had departed following a recent Fort Erie card, a few diehards were inside betting on the simulcast races, including the day's finale at Woodbine, and a solitary soul sat in the Fort Erie grandstand.

Interested in finding out why someone would sit all alone in a sea of empty seats, I maneuvered my way through the empty rows and found trainer Lyle Morden. Just in front of Morden was a television tuned to the 10th race at Woodbine.

Jockey Don Simington made a key career decision last year, and he has reaped the benefits all meet at Louisiana Downs. With just three weeks left in the season, he is closing in on his first local riding title with a 19-win lead in the standings through Thursday.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Stardom Bound, the leading 2-year-old filly in California, escaped serious injury on Friday morning when she was kicked by a pony during training hours at Santa Anita, trainer Christopher Paasch said.

But the incident concerned Paasch enough that he was considering scratching Stardom Bound from Saturday's Oak Leaf Stakes and training her up to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies here on Oct. 24.

Paasch said that X-rays taken late Friday morning of Stardom Bound's right rear leg showed no injury.

Hired Hand is going to be tough to beat in race 9 at Emerald Downs Sunday, a $20,000 starter allowance for 3-year-olds and up that have run for a claiming price of $15,000 or less in 2007-08.

There will be a familiar look to the stakes schedule when the 94-day 2008-2009 Tampa Bay Downs meet opens on Dec 13.

The stakes schedule at Tampa is virtually the same as a year ago. The one notable change will be a $25,000 increase in the purse for the Sam F. Davis Stakes, which this winter will be worth $225,000. The Sam F. Davis is a prep for Tampa's cornerstone event, the $300,000 Tampa Bay Derby, and will be the main event on the Festival Preview Day card on Feb. 14.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Gulfstream Park will have a new racing secretary in 2009, Doug Bredar, and along with it a new look to its stakes schedule when the meet begins on Jan. 3.

Among the most significant changes to the schedule, which offers 48 stakes, is a purse cut for the Grade 1 Florida Derby from $1 million to $750,000, along with a change in distance for two of the track's most prominent races, the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth and Gulfstream Park Handicap.