LEXINGTON, Ky. – Jockey Joe Talamo will forgo another winter at Oaklawn Park to stay closer to home by riding instead at Turfway Park, the northern Kentucky track where purses are projected to be at an all-time high.

Talamo has settled in Louisville after moving with his wife and two young sons multiple times since they left their longtime California home nearly two years ago. He rode 53 winners during his first full Oaklawn meet in 2020, just seven behind perennial leader Ricardo Santana Jr., and also rode most of last winter at the Arkansas track.

The Louisiana Racing Commission on Monday voted to allow Delta Downs in Vinton, La., to have daytime racing this Friday and Saturday due to racetrack lighting issues and will readdress the topic at a meeting next week. 

Delta is currently working with the lighting company and electricians to find solutions to the issue of shadows on the track, Steve Kuypers, vice president and general manager of Boyd Gaming’s racing properties in Louisiana, told the commission. He hopes a solution will be in place as early as next week. 

ELMONT, N.Y. – Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. will serve a three-day suspension for what the stewards deemed careless riding during the Grade 2 Vosburgh Stakes on Oct. 9 at Belmont Park.

Ortiz was aboard Firenze Fire, who finished second in the four-horse Vosburgh field, 4 3/4 lengths behind Following Sea and 2 1/2 lengths clear of Baby Yoda. According to the official chart of the race, Firenze Fire “angled in early under urging bumped Baby Yoda forcing that rival into Good Effort and bothering both foes.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – Pocket Square, the 2 1/2-length winner of the Grade 3 Athenia Stakes on Sept. 25, will be pre-entered for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, trainer Chad Brown said over the weekend.

Brown, who initially viewed Pocket Square as a middle-distance horse, has liked the way Pocket Square has performed at 1 1/8 miles in her last two starts, most notably the way she finished the Athenia. The Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf is run at 1 3/8 miles.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Joel Rosario is within striking distance of setting single-year records for graded stakes victories and total stakes wins by a jockey.

Rosario, 36, won Saturday’s Grade 2 Sands Point at Belmont Park aboard Fluffy Socks for his 46th graded win of 2021 and his 65th stakes victory overall. Jerry Bailey holds the record for graded stakes wins in one year with 55 in 2003, while Garrett Gomez set the single-year record for total stakes wins with 76 in 2007. The common denominator with all three riders is agent Ron Anderson.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Saffie Joseph reported that Mischevious Alex, winner of the Grade 1 Carter Handicap earlier this year, has been retired and will stand stud next year in Japan.

Mischevious Alex, an easy winner of the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint last winter, finished well back in both the Grade 1 Alfred Vanderbilt and Forego to close out his career. Overall, Mischevious Alex, a son of Into Mischief, captured 7 of 15 starts for earnings of $734,355.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Michelle Hemingway made an auspicious training debut Saturday, bringing the promising 3-year-old Manor House back from a nine-month layoff to win a one-mile allowance. Manor House, making only his third start, ran down odds-on favorite Financial System in the final strides.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The only thing hotter than the weather here this weekend was trainer David Fawkes, who sent out five consecutive winners in less than 24 hours, including the winners of the first three races on Sunday’s card. Four of those victories came over the recently installed Tapeta track.

Mishriff remains a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 6 despite finishing fourth in the Group 1 Champion Stakes at Ascot Racecourse in England on Saturday.

Trainer John Gosden said on Monday that Mishriff was not suited to the good-to-soft turf course at Ascot.

“He didn’t like it,” Gosden said. “They got a little bit of rain that morning.”

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2021: See DRF’s special section with top contenders, odds, comments, news, and more for each division

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Essential Quality and Knicks Go, two of the leading contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 6 at Del Mar, both were out for serious work Saturday for trainer Brad Cox at Churchill Downs.

Essential Quality went five furlongs in 1:01 in company, while Knicks Go went a solo half-mile in 49.60 seconds. Both will have two more works at Churchill before being part of a large Kentucky contingent scheduled to be flown Nov. 1 from Indianapolis to California via FedEx.