Saturday's $400,000 First Lady Stakes at Keeneland is the final race that offers the winner an automatic berth to the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

It remains to be seen whether that will matter. Precious Kitten and Lady of Venice, two leading contenders to the Grade 2 First Lady Stakes, are not being considered strongly for the Filly and Mare Turf, according to their respective trainers.

The strength of this year's crop of 3-year-olds was underscored further over the weekend, when Curlin, Hard Spun, and Tiago all scored victories against older horses in major prep races for the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 27 at Monmouth Park. Combined with the victory the previous weekend by Any Given Saturday against older horses in the Brooklyn Handicap, as well as strong, though losing efforts this past weekend by Street Sense and the older horse Lawyer Ron, the 1 1/4-mile Classic is shaping up as a race that could decide Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old.

The pecking order of the West Coast's best 2-year-old fillies should become clearer on Saturday, when the Grade 1, $250,000 Oak Leaf is run at Santa Anita. The 1 1/16-mile race is the circuit's final prep for the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Monmouth Park on Oct. 27. It will also be the first two-turn test for most of the race's expected starters, chief among them Set Play.

Arguably the top prospect for the newly created Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile will have his final prep for the Oct. 26 race when Discreet Cat runs Sunday in a tough renewal of the Grade 1 Vosburgh at Belmont Park.

Discreet Cat was ridden by Garrett Gomez when he capped a sensational 2006 by romping in the Cigar Mile last November, and Gomez will be back aboard Sunday in the six-furlong Vosburgh. Gomez also was aboard Monday when Discreet Cat, owned by Godolphin and trained by Saeed bin Suroor, breezed five furlongs in 1:00.84 at Belmont.

Saturday's $75,000 Pilgrim Stakes at Belmont Park had been expected to attract Big Brown, whose 11-length maiden victory at Saratoga Sept. 3 suggested he could become a candidate for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.

Instead, his stakes opportunities will have to wait. Trainer Rick Dutrow said Wednesday that Big Brown, a 2-year-old Boundary colt, has some undisclosed physical issues that will keep him out of the Pilgrim.

The Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting on Sunday offers a $250,000 purse, the significance of a Grade 1 win to the victor, and, since it is four weeks before the Oct. 27 Breeders' Cup at Monmouth Park, it is an ideal prep for the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Yet the race, through a combination of tragedy and trainer choice, is void of the 2-year-olds who were considered the leaders on the West Coast.

By STEVE ANDERSEN

My Typhoon's victory in the Diana at Saratoga in July assured her a spot in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Monmouth Park on Oct. 27 through the Breeders' Cup's new program of awarding automatic berths to the winners of selected stakes.

As of earlier this week, trainer Bill Mott was uncertain whether My Typhoon would accept the berth. In his opinion, the BC Filly and Mare Turf distance of 1 3/8 miles is not an ideal fit for My Typhoon. The problem is, neither is the Breeders' Cup Distaff over 1 1/8 miles on dirt the same day.

Curlin was on the fast track from the time he was purchased privately following his first start through the Belmont Stakes.

He went right into stakes competition, and raced in all three legs of the Triple Crown, in which he finished third in the Kentucky Derby, won the Preakness Stakes, and was second in the Belmont Stakes.

His campaign the second half of the year has been decidedly more deliberate. His trainer, Steve Asmussen, has had one goal in mind since the Triple Crown ended, that being the Grade 1, $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Monmouth Park on Oct. 27.

The shape of the Breeders' Cup Mile should begin to firm up Saturday, its contours drawn more clearly by the horse After Market, and the course Ascot.

After Market races this weekend in the Kelso Handicap, his prep for the BC Mile, while Saturday's action at Ascot in England is highlighted by the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, a potentially major overseas BC Mile prep.

After Market should be heavily favored to win his fifth straight race in the Grade 2 Kelso, but the question remains whether After Market can adapt to a new distance.

Things are definitely looking up for Dream Rush, the two-time Grade 1 winner and projected favorite for the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. First came word that the connections of the undefeated La Traviata, who would be Dream Rush's main opposition in the Breeders' Cup, are strongly considering facing males in the Sprint. And then, on Wednesday morning, Dream Rush had her first workout since Sept. 1 and since overcoming a minor illness that caused her to miss last Saturday's Gallant Bloom Handicap at Belmont Park.