DEL MAR, Calif. – Knicks Go has been in the center of discussion for Horse of the Year all year long, and he’ll start in the center of the field for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Del Mar after drawing post 5 in a field of nine Monday afternoon.

Knicks Go was established as the 5-2 favorite by Del Mar linemaker Jon White. His Brad Cox-trained stablemate, Essential Quality, is next at 3-1, with Essential Quality’s fellow 3-year-olds, Hot Rod Charlie and Medina Spirit, right behind at 4-1.

DEL MAR, Calif. – George Leonard III already had a stable star.

Leonard, a trainer, and an owner named Dave Hearn claimed a 5-year-old gelding named Zanesville for $5,000 in August 2020. The new connections moved Zanesville into starter-allowance competition – the gelding has not raced for a claiming price in the 18 starts since Leonard dropped the claim – and Zanesville won four times through the end of last year, banking about $65,000 in purses.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Independence Hall earned a career-best 105 Beyer Speed Figure in his 7 1/4-length romp over a sloppy track Saturday in the closing-day Fayette Stakes at Keeneland.

Trainer Michael McCarthy confirmed Sunday from California that the 4-year-old Constitution colt will remain stabled at Churchill Downs with assistant Justin Curran, likely to point to the Clark on Nov. 26. The Grade 1 Clark also is expected to get Maxfield, Midnight Bourbon, and the Fayette runner-up, Code of Honor, along with maybe King Fury and a handful of others.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – “I gotta quit doing that,” Brian Hernandez Jr. said with a grin.

Hernandez wasn’t talking about winning races, of course. Four winners on the Sunday opener have him in the early lead atop the Churchill Downs fall-meet jockey standings.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dennis’ Moment, a last-out allowance winner at Keeneland, will make his next start in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile on Dec. 4 at Aqueduct, trainer Dale Romans said Sunday from California.

Dennis’ Moment, owned by the Albaugh family of Iowa, had gone winless for more than two years before taking an Oct. 21 allowance at Keeneland with a 92 Beyer Speed Figure. The 4-year-old colt has had a star-crossed career, posting a 97 Beyer in his second start and then easily winning the Iroquois with flair before everything suddenly went awry.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kenny McPeek was extremely tired, but not of the winning.

“It’s not just all the training and racing and running up and down I-64 all the time, but the sale was this week, too,” said McPeek, referring to the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale held Oct. 25-28 in Lexington, Ky. “I can’t help myself. I’ve got to be involved.”

The deal had been negotiated. The paperwork was signed and scanned. All that remained to complete the transaction that would confirm Firenze Fire’s future as a stallion in Japan was the press of a button.

“It sat there on my computer for about 45 minutes before I could push send,” Ron Lombardi said.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse said his crack sprinter Not So Quiet has gone to the sidelines and will not meet the mighty Pink Lloyd in Sunday’s $100,000 Ontario Jockey Club Stakes for Ontario-sired runners.

Not So Quiet completed a sweep of the Vice Regent and Overskate stakes for the second year in a row when winning the latter race convincingly after it was taken off the grass on Oct. 9. The 6-year-old earned Beyer Speed Figures of 98 and 95 in those races, and was never better than he’s been this year.

Perhaps it is fitting that the feisty turf miler Mo Forza, rated as one of the leading chances for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar, was bred by Barry Abrams, the late California trainer who himself was full of verve.

“He did have his own ideas about things,” said his wife of 38 years, Dyan.

“Barry was a character,” trainer Peter Miller said.

Two prominent signs – one in Spanish, another in English – will be on display in the Del Mar jockeys’ room this week in advance of the Breeders’ Cup programs on Friday and Saturday.

The signs, designed primarily to grab the attention of out-of-state and international riders, will detail the strict whip rules that jockeys riding in California must follow to avoid sanctions that can result in suspensions or four-figure fines.