ELMONT N.Y. – Mo Town, one of the major disappointments of the 3-year-old division on dirt this year, may have found a new home on the turf.

In his first start on turf, Mo Town rolled to a 6 1/2-length allowance win Thursday at Belmont Park. It was his first victory since he won the Grade 2 Remsen at Aqueduct last November. Off the Remsen, Mo Town was among the early favorites for the Kentucky Derby. But disappointing efforts in the Risen Star at Fair Grounds and the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct took him off the Derby trail.

Joking, last year’s Grade 1 Vosburgh winner, returned to the work tab for the first time in 50 weeks Friday, breezing three furlongs in 38.89 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.

It was Joking’s first breeze since last Oct. 27 at Belmont when he was preparing for a start in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita. Joking got sick when he arrived in Southern California and had to scratch from the Sprint. He later developed pneumonia and got so sick that he nearly died.

MIAMI – The first horses scheduled to compete on the Clasico Internacional del Caribe program Dec. 9 at Gulfstream Park have arrived in Florida. Two of the three, Arquitecto and Jade Master, are stabled at Palm Meadows, while the third, Deland, is in Ocala.

All three were shipped to trainer Alexis Cordero-Lopez.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Friday was another busy morning for Breeders’ Cup candidates at Santa Anita. For the next two weeks, it will stay that way.

Indications are that most California-based trainers are likely to stay at Santa Anita for final workouts by Breeders’ Cup candidates and ship late to Del Mar for Breeders’ Cup races on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 3-4.

“They’ll get a chance to gallop over the [Del Mar] track Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday” during Breeders’ Cup week, trainer Peter Eurton said Friday after Champagne Room worked a bullet half-mile at Santa Anita.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Rick Violette, who has served as president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association since 2008, will not seek re-election this fall.

Violette said he believes it’s time for a change for both he and the organization and cited a desire to spend more time doing his primary job, training horses including his recent Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Diversify.  Violette asked the NYTHA board this week to remove his name from the ballots that go out on Oct. 24.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – It didn’t approach what happened this summer, but Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas set the Keeneland toteboard alight Thursday when Goats Town won the eighth race at a $66.60 mutuel, becoming the longest-priced winner for the opening five-day stretch of the fall meet.

Lukas had the longest-priced winner of the Saratoga meet when Perplexed returned a whopping $232.50 in the first race July 24.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Grade 2, $250,000 Raven Run is the richest of four graded stakes to be run on consecutive days here next week. Valadorna, Tequilita, Faypien, and Pinch Hit are among the 3-year-old fillies expected for what is shaping up as a terrific renewal of the seven-furlong Raven Run, to be contested Saturday, Oct. 21.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Al Stall Jr. has been around long enough not to get too excited when a horse wins its first two races. His father and grandfather were prominent owners and breeders in their home state of Louisiana, and Stall, now 56, was working with horses even before he left the oil business shortly after graduating from Louisiana State University.

The gang will certainly all be on hand at Laurel Park next Saturday for the 32nd Jim McKay Maryland Million Day. A total of 213 pre-entries were taken Wednesday for the 11 Maryland Million races, which include seven stakes and four starter races.

The pre-entries will thin out noticeably on Wednesday when entries are taken, because the pre-entries include a number of horses who are cross-entered in more than one race.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Highway Star worked a half-mile in 50 seconds Thursday over the Belmont Park training track, the second of four scheduled moves the New York-bred filly will have leading up to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 4 at Del Mar.

Jockey Angel Arroyo was aboard for the work, which Daily Racing Form timed in splits of 12.50, 24.64 for the quarter, and a final quarter in 25.36. She galloped out five furlongs in 1:04.08 over a track rated good.