Golden Gate Fields will increase purses from 12 percent to 30 percent for claiming and starter allowance races for the winter-spring meeting, which begins on Dec. 26, the track announced.

The higher purses are focused on claimers, maiden claimers and starter allowance races.

Races will receive across-the-board $3,000 increases. A $40,000 claiming race will increase from $25,000 to $28,000, or 12 percent, while a $3,200 claimer will be worth $13,000, a 30 percent hike from the current level of $10,000.

Despite sending a string to Colonial Downs for the first time in her career, necessitated by Churchill Downs closing its backstretch during summer turf-course construction, trainer Michelle Lovell is wrapping up the best year of a training career that began in 2003.

Mystic Guide, one of the best 4-year-old dirt-route horses of 2021, is gearing up for a 5-year-old campaign in 2022.

A Godolphin homebred trained by Michael Stidham, Mystic Guide gave Stidham the most important win of his long career when he captured the Dubai World Cup this past March. Mystic Guide, who won the Jim Dandy and was second in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at age 3, made one start following the World Cup, running second in the Suburban on July 5, before being diagnosed with a chipped knee that required surgical repair.

Loves Only You, game winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 6 at Del Mar, worked a half-mile in 53 seconds on the main track at Del Mar on Wednesday in preparation for a start in the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup at 1 1/4 miles at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong on Dec. 12.

:: DRF Black Friday: Get up to 50% off DRF Products. Offer ends soon.

The effects of an illness a few weeks ago will keep Hit the Road from racing this month, and instead he will wait for the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita.

The winner of the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf in March, Hit the Road was scratched from the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 6 at Del Mar because of an elevated temperature. Trainer Dan Blacker briefly considered starting him in Saturday’s Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap at Del Mar.

Hit the Road has not had a workout since Oct. 31.

Mucho Unusual, winner of the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes in 2020 and four other stakes in her 22-race career, will miss Sunday’s Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar in favor of a start in the Grade 3 Megahertz Stakes at Santa Anita in January.

Trainer Tim Yakteen said in a text message on Wednesday that Mucho Unusual will have an early 2022 schedule in turf stakes designed “to follow the same campaign as last year.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The first of five pools in the 2022 Kentucky Derby Future Wager opens Thursday at noon Eastern, along with the Derby Sires Future Wager. Both pools close at 6 p.m. Sunday following four days of betting.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Steve Asmussen has a head start on extending his own record to most meet titles at Churchill, taking a four-win edge (13-9) over Brad Cox into the final week of the meet. This would be the 25th meet title for Asmussen, the all-time winningest trainer at Churchill and in North America overall.

It might look a little different – and it’ll definitely sound a lot different – at Tampa Bay Downs when the Oldsmar, Fla., track kicks off its 2021-22 meet Wednesday.

A refurbishing of an aging facility was undertaken in recent months, while Jason Beem is the new announcer at Tampa, which has made steady gains in popularity in recent years among winter horseplayers.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After riding the last five days of the Churchill meet, including Midnight Bourbon in the Clark, star jockey Joel Rosario will ride four days at Aqueduct, Dec. 2-5, according to agent Ron Anderson.

Rosario then will be idle for more than a week, traveling to his native country, the Dominican Republic, to visit with family. The trip coincides with him serving a three-day suspension (Dec. 9-11) stemming from a riding infraction during Preakness week at Pimlico in May. His next confirmed date of action is Dec. 18 at Gulfstream Park, where five stakes will be run.