Closing weekend festivities at Columbus begin with a 10-race card Friday night and will include stakes races on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, the conclusion of wide-open jockey and trainer races, and the start of the University of Nebraska football season.

With the Big Red kicking off the season against Western Michigan on Saturday evening in Lincoln, the Columbus Races will present the pay-per-view game in the clubhouse with free admission. There will also be $1 draft beer all four days of the final weekend.

Closing weekend at River Downs is always the biggest of the season.

Saturday's feature is the $100,000 Bassinet. Ten 2-year-old fillies were entered in the six-furlong race, including the first three finishers in the local prep that was run Aug. 10.

Yo Eleven, the winner of the prep and only two-time winner in the field, is the horse to beat. Trained by Mike Crowder, Yo Eleven was kept just off the early pace last time out and dueled through the stretch to prevail by a half-length under Julio Felix, who gets the return mount.

Confucius Say continues to defy Father Time.

A 10-year-old gelding who launched a comeback two seasons ago after missing nearly 3 1/2 years with assorted ailments, Confucius Say tuned up for a possible start in this fall's $500,000 West Virginia Breeders Classic by cruising to a wire-to-wire 3 1/2-length victory in Saturday night's $50,000 Frank Gall Memorial Handicap at Charles Town.

Calder Race Course and the organization representing Florida horsemen have agreed to seek a reduction in live racing days for September, October, and parts of November, citing reduced business at the track, officials said.

Sitting atop his gray stable pony in the early morning hours of Aug. 18, all seemed right in trainer Steve Asmussen's world. His reigning champion Curlin had just put in a smashing workout over Saratoga's main track, and several other of his top stakes horses had breezed similarly well over the training track.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Too many visitors to Keeneland Racecourse are put off by the lack of permanent seating and the long lines of traffic that strangle access roads during the spring and fall meets, the track's president, Nick Nicholson, said at a public forum held by Keeneland on Monday night.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Nicholas Bachalard is caring for six horses at the far end of a barn near the northwestern end of Del Mar's stable area. He's about as far from the track as one can get, but this weekend, he will be front and center.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - With a $1.7 million price tag on his head, expectations were high when Munnings launched his career here at Saratoga on July 26. Munnings did not disappoint, overcoming a slight mishap at the break to post an easy 4 1/2-length wire-to-wire victory over the well-regarded Just Coincidence.

Munnings will attempt to earn back a little more of his large purchase price as one of the favorites, along with Desert Party, in the Grade 1 Hopeful on closing day Monday.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Nick Zito will have both quality and quantity on his side in Thursday’s $80,000 Halfmoon overnight stakes at Saratoga. The Halfmoon is written for fillies and mares who have not won an open stakes in 2008.

DEL MAR, Calif. -- A victory by 52-1 longshot Kiamika in the final race at Del Mar on Monday triggered a carryover of $111,820 into the pick six on Wednesday, when racing resumes here after a day off on Tuesday.

There are eight races on the Wednesday card, so the pick six will begin with the third race at approximately 3 p.m. Pacific.

The feature race on Wednesday is the $100,000 Generous Portion Stakes for 2-year-old fillies bred in California.