LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Essential Quality and Knicks Go, the top two current favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, are on a steady work pattern at Churchill Downs for trainer Brad Cox but are taking divergent paths to the $6 million race on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Those with a horse nominated to the Overskate Stakes on Oct. 9 at Woodbine will be breathing a sigh of relief when they find out that Woodbine Mile winner Town Cruise won’t be contesting that Ontario-sired event.

Owner-trainer Brandon Greer said Tuesday that Town Cruise emerged from his gate-to-wire victory in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile in good shape but is headed to the farm. The race was a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In qualifier, but Town Cruise isn’t BC-nominated and the BC Mile at Del Mar was never on his radar anyway.

Medina Spirit, the 2-1 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing, will not run in that race, trainer Bob Baffert told the track’s notes team Tuesday morning.

Baffert said he didn’t like the way the race could potentially set up for his front-running winner of the Kentucky Derby after Medina Spirit drew post 9, just outside other speed horses Hot Rod Charlie (post 7) and Midnight Bourbon (post 8).

Baffert also said he would scratch Private Mission, a 9-2 shot, from the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion for 3-year-old fillies.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Astronaut, the lightly raced Shirreffs trainee who earned a fees-paid berth to the BC Turf by winning the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap on Aug. 21 at Del Mar, will train into the Breeders’ Cup rather than shorten to a mile and one-quarter in the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship on Oct. 2 at Santa Anita.

Four of the top seven finishers from the Kentucky Derby were part of a 10-horse field entered Monday for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing. However, Medina Spirit will be withdrawn from the race, trainer Bob Baffert told the Parx notes team.

The scratch leaves Hot Rod Charlie as a solid favorite in a field of nine.

“I want to do what is best for the horse,” Baffert said Tuesday morning after arriving back in California from the Keeneland September sale. “I don’t like the way he drew.”

ARCADIA, Calif. - Edgeway will be up against it facing one of the most heavily favored runners of the 2021 Breeders’ Cup, but trainer John Sadler will take his best shot by sending Edgeway into the Filly and Mare Sprint as a fresh filly.

Sadler acknowledged that, at least on paper, “nobody can beat Gamine. But who’s in the second tier? – Frank’s Rockette, Edgeway, maybe Kimari. I’m going to train [Edgeway] into the Breeders’ Cup. She does well with spacing.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – A late-season showdown between California’s top handicap horses of winter, spring, and summer is taking shape as one of the most appealing stakes of the Santa Anita fall meet that begins on Oct. 1.

Idol, Express Train, and Tripoli are all on target for the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes on Oct. 2. The $300,000 race is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race leading to the BC Classic on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

Earlier this month, trainer Peter Miller was at the San Diego airport, bound for the Keeneland sales, when a flight delay was announced.

The postponement went from a momentary hiccup to concern about a missed flight connection. Eventually, Miller abandoned the trip.

“It wasn’t meant to be,” he said recently. “I thought, I’m not going to Lexington. I’m going to going to rest and get ready for Santa Anita.

“I’m way more of a 2-year-old buyer than a yearling buyer, anyway.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sir Winston, the 2019 Belmont Stakes winner, made a triumphant return to Woodbine when he won a conditioned allowance route on the main track off a one-year layoff with a 93 Beyer Speed Figure on Aug. 19.

Sir Winston is slated to make his next start here Oct. 10 in the Grade 3 Durham Cup, according to trainer Mark Casse, who bypassed the Grade 3 Seagram Cup here Sept. 11 with the son of Awesome Again.

“He’s good,” Casse said. “Coming off a year layoff, I didn’t want to rush him back.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – Malathaat, the leading 3-year-old filly in the country based on three Grade 1 stakes wins, returned to the work tab over the weekend as she stepped up preparations for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

Malathaat, working on the inside of Vacay, went a half-mile in 49.57 seconds over the Belmont Park training track. It was her first move since she won the Alabama on Aug. 21 at Saratoga.

“I thought she went great,” Pletcher said. “She just kind of went easy; she was happy to get back to work and we’ll continue on to the Distaff.”