Even though the Breeders' Cup Distaff comes back in just 20 days, trainers Carl Nafzger and Jerry Hollendorfer would both like to see their candidates have a hard race in their final preps on Sunday.

It appears only Nafzger will get his wish. Nafzger will send out the 3-year-old Lady Joanne in Sunday's Grade 1, $500,000 Juddmonte Spinster at Keeneland, where she could meet as many as 11 rivals, including Grade 1 winners Asi Siempre, Panty Raid, and Sugar Shake, as well as graded stakes winners Teammate,

Taking a page from Grand Couturier, who beat him coming up the rail in the Sword Dancer, English Channel impressed with his handy score in Sunday's Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational at Belmont Park. Once the inside opened, he was in front and clear in an instant, and while he was not beating much, he did it with authority. It is doubtful that anything in Saturday's Clement Hirsch at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting could pose a serious threat to him in the Breeders' Cup Turf.

Majestic Warrior, the leader of the division, will have his final tune-up for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile when he heads the field on Saturday in Belmont Park's Grade 1, $400,000 Champagne Stakes, which features a rematch between Majestic Warrior and Ready's Image.

They met for the first time in the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga, where Majestic Warrior rallied to win the race and assume the role of antepost favorite for the Juvenile.

The Leopard stamped himself a Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf contender with a victory in last Saturday's Pilgrim Stakes over the Belmont Park turf course.

This Saturday, the connections of Old Man Buck similarly hope he can punch his Breeders' Cup ticket with a strong performance in the Grade 1 Lane's End Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland, a 1 1/16-mile race over Polytrack.

Home-track advantage occasionally is a factor in the Breeders' Cup, especially when the races are run at one of the major tracks in California, New York, or Kentucky, where many top horses are based.

But when the Breeders' Cup veers off its beaten path, the home-track factor diminishes. That figures to prove true this year, when Monmouth Park hosts the championships for the first time, although a few horses with successful form over the local strip are being pointed for the BC Dirt Mile.

The field for the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint could be impacted by the results of this event's final major prep race, Saturday's Grade 3, $300,000 Thoroughbred Club of America, a six-furlong stakes at Keeneland.

Trainer Bob Baffert took down the West Coast's most important prep for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies last weekend, when Cry and Catch Me captured the Oak Leaf during the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita. Saturday, he has his sights set on the East Coast's final major prep, the Grade 1, $400,000 Frizette, with Indian Blessing.

She could go favored in the one-mile race at Belmont. Indian Blessing enters off a debut win at Saratoga in which she ran 5 1/2 furlongs in a quick 1:03.20. For the effort, she earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 97.

With the last two major prep races scheduled for this weekend - the Oak Tree Mile on Sunday in California, and the Shadwell Turf Mile on Saturday in Kentucky - one might suppose the Breeders' Cup Mile later this month in New Jersey might be coming into sharper focus. It's not - not yet, at least.

Both Trippi's Storm and After Market, the one-two finishers in the Kelso Handicap last Saturday at Belmont, could wind up in the Breeders' Cup, but the real question is who's coming from across the pond.

Diamond Stripes won the Pegasus Handicap last year at the Meadowlands in only his third lifetime start. On Friday night, he will return there for the Grade 2, $500,000 Meadowlands Cup, which offers Diamond Stripes a chance to face slightly softer competition after knocking heads with the likes of Lawyer Ron this summer at Saratoga.

The Meadowlands Cup is the last major prep for the Breeders' Cup Classic, but many of the horses in the Meadowlands Cup, Diamond Stripes included, might end up going in the inaugural BC Dirt Mile because the Classic is coming up such a salty race.

Barring a spectacular performance by one of the handful of speedsters in Sunday's Grade 1 Ancient Title Handicap at Santa Anita, the first three betting choices for the Breeders' Cup Sprint are set.