HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The career of the popular turf sprinter and Gulfstream Park track-record holder Pay Any Price may be coming to a close at the end of the month, with his retirement brought about by a Gulfstream Park house rule that prohibits horses from racing here past the age of 10.

A horse named Wacudposblygowrng won the seventh race Sunday at Fair Grounds, an appropriate coda to the four-day opening week of the 2020-21 season.

Opening day, Thursday, power issues took down track announcer John Dooley’s microphone as well as the regular Fair Grounds simulcast feed graphics package while rendering unusable some high-definition cameras. The resulting product, a shaky shifting picture with no audio, felt like a relic from a different era.

Travel Column will winter in New Orleans as her connections eye a possible start in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Feb. 13 at Fair Grounds.

Travel Column became trainer Brad Cox’s 30th graded-stakes winner of 2020 when she captured the Grade 2 Golden Rod on Saturday at Churchill Downs, beating Clairiere by one length in a race where odds-on favorite Simply Ravishing finished fourth.

Cox and Chad Brown are tied for the lead in North American graded stakes wins this year. Cox’s 30 such victories have come with just 91 starters, a 33 percent strike.

Lone Star Park near Dallas has asked for additional dates for its Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse meets in 2021, according to documents from the Texas Racing Commission.

Track officials indicated at a recent commission meeting they were considering asking for more dates.

Lone Star is now pitching a Thoroughbred meet that would run 48 days, from April 22 to July 11. The track had previously received approval for a 42-date meet starting April 16. Purses are projected to average $252,000 per program over 48 dates, according to documents filed to the commission.

Trainer Austin Gustafson has had a breakout year, racking up the wins both professionally and personally in 2020.

He’s never had a better year at the track – and he’s a new husband and father.

“It’s been amazing,” he said. “It’s been really good.”

Gustafson, 28, has won 45 races from 187 starts this year, for a 24 percent win rate. His starters have earned $774,703 through Monday. The numbers eclipse his previous best year of 21 wins and stable earnings of $351,820, both achieved in 2019.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There were screams, there were hugs, and there were tears. Plenty of tears.

Family and friends of the late owner Paul Pompa Jr. attended the races at Aqueduct on Saturday and got to make two trips to the winner’s circle, first with Spirit Maker in a maiden race and later with Turned Aside in the $100,000 Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship.

But the thrill of victory was tinged with the sadness of the absence of Pompa, who died Oct. 9 of a heart attack at the age of 62.

Racing will not resume at Golden Gate Fields on Thursday as track management had hoped, with the track remaining shut down because of a COVID-19 outbreak.

Racing was canceled for one week on Nov. 13 with the shutdown later extended through Nov. 30.

“At this time, our reopening is still up in the air,” said racing secretary Patrick Mackey.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mutamakina, winner of Saturday’s Grade 3 Long Island Stakes, will race in 2021, trainer Christophe Clement said.

Races like the Grade 3, $150,000 La Prevoyante going 1 1/2 miles on Jan. 23 or the Grade 3, $100,000 Orchid going 1 3/8 miles on March 27 will be considered, but Clement said he would like to have a fresh horse for the more lucrative marathon races later in the year.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Barring an unexpected change of heart, Firenze Fire will have a 6-year-old campaign in 2021, owner Ron Lombardi said Sunday.

“I love the horse, I love racing, I’m really not a breeder, although I do have 15 broodmares,” Lombardi said. “I’m in it for the racing and the thrill of it.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Stan Hough, who in September 2018 emerged from a 6 1/2-year hiatus from a stellar training career to work primarily for Sagamore Farm, has retired for good after saddling his last two runners Saturday at Churchill.