Alex Evers

With the racing world still abuzz from last weekend’s Travers, where Fierceness held on gamely to defeat the 3-year-old filly Thorpedo Anna in a finish reminiscent of the Zenyatta-Blame showdown in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic, we didn’t have to wait long for another female to challenge the boys in a major dirt race.

Del Mar's premiere event, the $1 million Grade 1 Fanduel Racing Pacific Classic, attracted a contentious field of nine older horses, four of them graded-stakes winners, including the mare Adare Manor, who seeks her fourth straight victory. The 1 1/4-mile contest is a qualifier for the Grade 1 Breeders'Cup Classic, which will be contested at this track.

Adare Manor, the 5-year-old mare who was the morning-line favorite against males in Saturday's Grade 1 Pacific Classic, will not start in the race at Del Mar.

Del Mar’s leading jockey Juan Hernández was in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic with Adare Manor, and then he was out when trainer Bob Baffert scratched the mare Friday morning.

Fifteen days after she made her Grade 1 breakthrough in the Del Mar Oaks, Iscreamuscream returned to the work tab in California.

With the latest chapter of the Breeders’ Cup on the agenda, Del Mar will host its fall meet starting on Thursday, Oct. 31, and running until Sunday, Dec. 1.

Forbidden Kingdom, whose only start this year was in April, has been working in California for trainer Richard Mandella.

It's rare these days to witness a late-season showdown between the top two horses in a division before the Breeders'Cup, but that's exactly what we get Saturday at Del Mar.

AmWager.com received its license from the California Horse Racing Board and is now available to residents of California. Horse racing enthusiasts in the Golden State who are 21 years and older can place wagers on over 450 U.S. and international tracks through AmWager.

For the first time, the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series comes to South Korea for two races this weekend, headlined by the Grade 3 Korea Cup at 1 1/8 miles and the Korea Sprint (G3) at six furlongs.