Hal Wiggins, who trained Rachel Alexandra through her dominating win in the Kentucky Oaks, is set to start his second season as a Fair Grounds steward next month. Wiggins, who is retired from training, had gone through a stewards training program in Louisville, Ky., in 2007, before Rachel Alexandra.

“I served as a steward last year. That was my first year, and I really enjoyed it,” Wiggins said. “Fortunately, they asked me to come back.”

Wiggins said an opening became available when steward Dave Hooper went to Canterbury.

Trainer C.R. Trout shipped Maysville Slew to Churchill Downs for the Clark Handicap back in 2000, and the horse ran one of the best races of his career, finishing third to Surfside and earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 107.

Trout has since waited for the right horse to take another shot at the Clark, and he believes he has found him in Shotgun Kowboy. The winner of the Grade 3, $424,000 Oklahoma Derby in September added another stakes win to his résumé last week when he defeated older horses in the $175,000 Oklahoma Classics Cup at his base of Remington Park.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Just like the weather, things are beginning to heat up during training hours at Keeneland with the Breeders’ Cup now just about a week away.

The temperature was approaching 60 degrees when the main track opened for business at 5:30 a.m. Thursday, and it was a half-hour later when trainer Todd Pletcher sent out the first of his five Breeders’ Cup workers. As they have been for the past week, the skies were clear and the track fast, perhaps even a bit on the glib side, as training on the turf course remained closed for Breeders’ Cup workers until Sunday.

Beholder walked the shed row under tack Wednesday and was to return to the track the following morning, as trainer Richard Mandella reiterated that the champion's elevated temperature after arriving in Kentucky was due to shipping stress.

Beholder, who had additional blood work done and lung scans taken Wednesday, was able to walk the shed row during the afternoon under exercise rider Janeen Painter. She will return to the track to gallop Thursday as she begins final preparations for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Monmouth Park will open its second New Jersey offtrack betting parlor Friday in Hillsborough.

Named “Favorites in Hillsborough,” the OTB will have 60 carrels for players to sit and handicap and “dozens” of high-definition flat-screen TVs. McLoone’s Clubhouse Pub will offer a full menu.

The Hillsborough OTB will be open seven days a week at 11 a.m.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky Horse Racing Commission security personnel last Friday searched the Keeneland and Trackside stables of trainer Joe Sharp, according to chief steward Barbara Borden. The search found nothing improper, said Borden.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A second dirt mile is carded for Friday as Keeneland uses another road test toward the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile a week later. The 1 1/16-mile circumference of the main track makes for an unusual layout, with the one-mile races starting behind the regular finish wire and ending at the earlier secondary wire, or what is otherwise the sixteenth pole.

Keeneland

Track: Fast

Weather: Clear

Temp.: 54

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A couple of hours before the pre-entries for the 13 Breeders’ Cup races were announced, RUNHAPPY announced himself as one of the horses to beat in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, putting on a sensational display of speed over a glib Keeneland main track on Wednesday.

Runhappy was one of only two Breeders’ Cup pre-entrants to work at Keeneland on Wednesday, along with CONQUEST DADDYO, who will compete in the Juvenile Turf.

The $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies lost a main player last week in Alcibiades Stakes winner Gomo and picked up several longshots when pre-entries were taken Monday.

A dozen 2-year-old fillies were pre-entered in the 1 1/16-mile Juvenile Fillies, but only 10 are likely to start. Frizette Stakes runner-up Nemoralia, trained by Newmarket-based Jeremy Noseda, and Thrilled, trained by Todd Pletcher, were cross-entered, with the Juvenile Fillies Turf being their first preference. Both fillies are in the body of the Juvenile Fillies Turf field.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – And speaking of the Breeders’ Cup …

Sunset Glow and Osaila, both with big Breeders’ Cup efforts on their past performances, are among an oversubscribed group of 3-year-old fillies set to go postward Saturday in the last of 16 stakes at the Keeneland fall meet, the Grade 3 Valley View Stakes.