ARCADIA, Calif. - Sometime this week, there will be an empty stall in barn 89 at Santa Anita.

Royal F J, the 10-year-old gelding who has had a near-constant presence in trainer Jack Carava’s stable since 2009, will be shipped to a local farm to begin retirement.

Last Thursday, Royal F J finished seventh in a $6,250 claimer, beaten 9 1/2 lengths in his 102nd start. By the next morning, Carava decided that Royal F J would not race again.

“I think he was an old smart dude and he was saying not today,” Carava said,

ARCADIA, Calif. - B Squared and Richard’s Boy, the first two finishers of the $100,690 California Flag Handicap at Santa Anita on Saturday, will be pre-entered for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 4.

Whether B Squared and Richard’s Boy gain berths in the field remains to be determined. The BC Turf Sprint will have a maximum field of 14, but could have a greater number of pre-entries, possibly 18 to 20.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Cambodia, the winner of two Grade 2 stakes for fillies and mares on turf at Del Mar this summer, was the most prominent of nine Breeders’ Cup candidates to work on turf at Santa Anita on Sunday.

Trained by Tom Proctor for Don Robinson, Cambodia worked five furlongs in 1:00 with temporary rails set midway out on the turf course. Cambodia has not raced since winning the John C. Mabee Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf Sept. 2. Earlier at the Del Mar summer meeting, Cambodia won the Yellow Ribbon Stakes.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Virtually all of the New York-based horses preparing for the Breeders’ Cup are based at Belmont Park. There is one, however, who is eight miles away, preparing in what is currently a tranquil environment at Aqueduct.

Lady Ivanka, the winner of the Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga on Sept. 2, has been based at Aqueduct since it reopened Sept. 18. On Sunday, Lady Ivanka had her fifth workout over the main track, breezing five furlongs in 1:01.06 for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar on Nov. 4.

Belmont Park 
Track: Fast 
Weather: Clear 
Temp.: 56

ELMONT, N.Y. – Only a handful of potential Breeders’ Cup starters worked here Sunday on another picture-perfect morning, a list topped by turf specialists Annals of Time and War Flag, prepping for the Mile and Filly and Mare Turf.

Temperatures were in the high 40s at dawn but climbed higher by the time the Breeders’ Cup workout action began immediately after the renovation break on the main track before continuing over on the turf course several minutes later.

Heart to Heart is a nine-time graded stakes winner and millionaire, but one goal has been elusive. The horse will be seeking his first Grade 1 victory as a supplemental entry to the Breeders’ Cup Mile. 

“I’d be elated,” said trainer Brian Lynch after sending out Heart to Heart and Grade 1-winning stablemate Oscar Performance, bound for the Breeders’ Cup Turf, for solo works over the Keeneland turf course Sunday. “I’d lift the roof off that grandstand at Del Mar.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Kentucky Oaks winner Abel Tasman worked seven furlongs from the gate in 1:25.60 on Sunday morning at Santa Anita and had to avoid a horse who went wrong just in front of her shortly after she broke from the gate.

She was one of more than a dozen horses who worked on the main track Sunday in preparation for the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 3-4 at Del Mar. Abel Tasman is heading to the Distaff on Nov. 3, when she will face older runners.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Led by Collected, who will be trying to seize Horse of the Year and champion older male on dirt with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, more than a dozen horses with Breeders’ Cup aspirations turned in key workouts on Saturday morning at Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup races Nov. 3-4 at Del Mar.

Belmont Park   
Track/turf: Fast/Firm
Weather: Clear
Temp.: 64

ELMONT, N.Y. - Nearing the end of a half-mile breeze aboard Firenze Fire on Saturday morning, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. wanted to see how much horse he had underneath him. So, inside the sixteenth-pole, Ortiz squeezed his horse ever so slightly.

The response was what Ortiz was hoping for, and he quickly grabbed hold of the colt as he proceeded to gallop-out past the wire.