SHELBYVILLE, Ind. – Express Model came from off the pace to win Wednesday’s $90,090 Indiana Stallion at Indiana Downs.

Trained by Bernie Flint and ridden by Leandro Goncalves, Express Model was kept back off quick early fractions until upper stretch. Goncalves went to work, and the Indiana-bred filly surged to the front for a 1 1/2-length victory. Secondhand Justice, under Fernando De La Cruz, was second, a length in front of Tricia’s Trauma.

Express Model bested the field of Indiana-bred 2-year-old fillies in 1.11.96 over a fast track and returned $5.20.

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ELMONT, N.Y. – Last year, Royal Delta suffered only two defeats in North America. Trainer Todd Pletcher was responsible for both of them.

Saturday, Pletcher will go for a hat trick of sorts when he sends out Princess of Sylmar, the leading 3-year-old filly in the country, against two-time champion Royal Delta in the Grade 1, $400,000 Beldame Invitational at Belmont Park.

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ARCADIA, Calif. – Get comfortable.

Starting Friday, approximately seven of the next nine months of Thoroughbred racing in Southern California will be held at Santa Anita, which opens a 24-day autumn meeting on Friday highlighted by the Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 1-2. The six-week season will present a mix of familiar and new elements for racing fans who have made the picturesque racetrack one of the most popular in the United States.

AUBURN, Wash. – With Emerald Downs claimer-of-the-meeting honors to be announced Sunday on the final day of the meeting, Southern Solution can throw his name into the running with a victory in the feature race Friday, a $15,000 claimer for 3-year-olds at one mile. First post for the seven-race card is 6:45 p.m. Pacific.

Southern Solution has four victories at Emerald Downs this summer, and only one other Thoroughbred has more. Kind of Naughty, who captured an allowance race last Sunday, has five victories at the meeting, three of which came against claimers.

Trainer Keith Nations enjoyed decent success in Northern California, particularly in 2012 when he got his first stakes victory with Bailouttheminister in the Sam Whiting at Pleasanton and then won the Joseph Grace at Santa Rosa and the Bull Dog at Fresno with Control Seeker. But he has left Northern California and is now stabling horses at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa., near Philadelphia.

Being on the virtual racing island that is Northern California, Nations has won at a respectable 19 percent over his career, but he said that opportunities for his horses were becoming fewer.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Jimmy Iselin didn’t want Willet, his New York-bred stakes-winning mare, to go nine weeks between starts, so while it might not be ideal, Willet will run in Friday’s $100,000 Princess Dixie Stakes at Belmont Park.

Iselin is pointing Willet to the $150,000 Iroquois Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares, a race she won last year by 9 1/4 lengths. The Iroquois is at seven furlongs. Friday’s Princess Dixie is scheduled for 7 1/2 furlongs.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Topic, the 3-year-old stakes-winning filly trained by Neil Drysdale, grew up quickly over the summer.

The winner of a maiden race at Betfair Hollywood Park in June, Topic was third in the Grade 1 American Oaks in her stakes debut there in July before beating older fillies and mares in the CTT and TOC Handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 23.

ARCADIA, Calif. – New paint and a spiffy remodel are among the fresh improvements at Santa Anita, which begins its autumn meet Friday.

But freshness also comes on four legs, and the principal entrants in the Grade 3 Eddie D Stakes are certainly fresh.

Caracortado has not started in nearly 21 months, Snowday has raced just once in 11 months, and Unbridled’s Note has been off almost five months. Layoffs aside, another shared trait is all are good horses qualified to win on opening day.

Tampa Bay Downs in Florida on Wednesday banned one of its leading trainers, Jane Cibelli, for its 2013-14 meet after being notified that she had been issued a 60-day suspension from the state’s racing commission for an incident in which a veterinarian administered an illegal substance to one of her horses on race day, the track said.

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ELMONT, N.Y. – By virtue of his victory in the Whitney Invitational, Cross Traffic earned a fees-paid berth into the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. In Saturday’s $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, Cross Traffic must prove that’s the race in which he belongs.