LEXINGTON, Ky. – Saffie Joseph Jr., the leading trainer at the Gulfstream Park spring-summer meet, has been on hand at Keeneland all week after traveling to Baltimore to saddle Ny Traffic for a ninth-place finish in the Preakness.

Ny Traffic is “already back at my barn at Gulfstream,” Joseph said. “He’s going to get a break before we get him ready for a 4-year-old campaign.”

Going forward, Joseph said he intends to have a presence at the major meets on this circuit. Through Thursday, he’s 4 for 18 with his Kentucky starters since Sept. 1.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – No doubt that Aunt Pearl went fast in smashing the Jessamine stakes record Wednesday when getting 1 1/16 miles on turf in 1:40.86, but it must be noted the swift clocking followed an unprecedented 216-foot run-up before official timing of the race began.

Partly as a result, and at the behest of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, Keeneland has begun publishing the run-ups for all races every race morning on its website, keeneland.com, effective Friday, according to Bob Elliston, Keeneland vice president of racing.

Churchill Downs has begun selling a limited number of tickets for its upcoming fall meet that begins in late October, according to an official with the company.

The tickets are being made available through the track’s website and at internet brokerage sites, according to Darren Rogers, the track’s vice president of communications. Churchill has not yet allowed spectators on-track this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, including at its re-scheduled Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Art Collector is back in training following a disappointing run in the Preakness as trainer Tommy Drury ponders a suitable next spot for a colt who incurred his first defeat as a 3-year-old when finishing fourth last Saturday in the final leg of the 2020 Triple Crown.

Drury said the Nov. 7 Breeders’ Cup Classic or BC Dirt Mile are the logical choices for a next race, although he also will consider waiting for the Nov. 27 Clark at Churchill Downs, depending on how the colt trains in the coming days and weeks.

Big Runnuer, who won his graded stakes debut in the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes on Sept. 25 at Santa Anita, worked a half-mile in 49 seconds on Thursday in preparation for an expected start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 7 at Keeneland.

The first weekend of October was a true homecoming for jockey Tyler Baze. Baze rode three winners at Santa Anita on his second weekend of riding in California after spending most of the year based in the Midwest.

More importantly, his wife and three children returned to their home near the racetrack after spending nearly a month with family in Southern California because of a massive wildfire in the mountains near Santa Anita. The children range in age from 3 to 6.

It was family that lured Baze back to California last month.

ELMONT, N.Y. – As he closes in on becoming just the eighth Thoroughbred trainer to reach the 5,000-win plateau, Todd Pletcher says the milestone will conjure memories of victories large and small.

In New York, where he has been based for 25 years, Pletcher has won virtually every big race offered on this circuit.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Mr. Big News, third in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby, came out of his distant seventh in the Preakness last Saturday in great shape and could make his next start in an undercard stakes on Breeders’ Cup weekend (Nov. 6-7) at Keeneland, trainer Bret Calhoun said.

“We might give him a little rest, or we might look at trying the turf in the Bryan Station,” a 1 1/8-mile turf race for 3-year-olds on Nov. 6, Calhoun said. All nine prior starts for Mr. Big News, a Giant’s Causeway colt, have come over dirt.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Magic Attitude, a dazzling winner as the favorite in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks in her stateside debut last month, heads a field of nine 3-year-old turf fillies in the sixth and final Grade 1 race of the Keeneland fall meet, the 37th running of the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Saturday.

Magic Attitude arrived here Tuesday following an overnight van ride from her base at the Fair Hill Training Center in northern Maryland. Arnaud Delacour trains the Galileo filly for the Lael Stables of Roy and Gretchen Jackson of Barbaro fame.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rocco O’Connor and Jake Romans have been best buds since a very young age. Prior to attending the same Louisville high school together, they grew up as tots on the racetracks of Kentucky, mostly at Churchill Downs, where their fathers trained horses.