AUBURN, Wash. – Trainer Tom Wenzel holds an exceptionally strong hand in advance of Sunday’s $50,000 Seattle Handicap at Emerald Downs. Wenzel will send out three starters in the meeting’s first stakes for 3-year-old fillies, and the three – Goin to the Window, Stopshoppingdebbie, and Blueberry Smoothie – could start as the three favorites in an eight-horse field.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Schiaparelli’s career was stalled until trainer Mike Puype and owner-breeder Jan Vanderbos revived a family technique designed to alleviate jitters.

Vanderbos recalled Cambiocorsa wore ear muffs during eight wins on the Santa Anita hill before her broodmare career. Her first foal was Schiaparelli, whose racing career started with back-to-back wins. Then she became a nervous Nellie and lost three straight.

“She was blowing a lot of energy in the post parade,” Puype said.

AUBURN, Wash. – Polish Dollar was a $5,000 claimer when trainer Bob Meeking got his hands on the horse for the first time in the winter of 2011. Some 18 months later, Polish Dollar is one of the fastest horses at Emerald Downs. If the 7-year-old Polish Dollar is not stakes caliber, he’s pretty darn close.

Isn’t He Clever, who set a track record in his most recent start, appears to be the chief threat to the Steve Asmussen-trained pair of Prayer for Relief and Master Rick in Monday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap. The 1 1/16-mile race was drawn on Friday, with the five-horse field completed by Formaggio and Battle Hardened.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Disposablepleasure could not break through the upper echelon of the 3-year-old filly division on dirt last year so her connections tried experimenting.

After a mediocre race on turf and a disastrous effort on synthetic, Disposablepleasure was given some time off while her connections pondered her future.

Back to the dirt since she began her 4-year-old season, Disposablepleasure has earned the right to return to Grade 1 competition when she runs in Monday’s $400,000 Ogden Phipps Handicap at Belmont Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher said he felt the rail post position might have compromised Cross Traffic when he finished a game second to Flat Out in the Grade  3 Westchester last month at Belmont Park.

Hours before post positions were to be drawn for Monday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Metropolitan Handicap, where Cross Traffic will again meet Flat Out, Pletcher said, “we’d prefer to draw an outside post where we have some options.”

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Black Onyx is recuperating in Florida from the injury that knocked him out of the Kentucky Derby on the morning before the race.

The initial prognosis was a chip in his left front ankle that could possibly require surgery. Turns out, it was a hairline fracture that did not require an operation.

The Spiral Stakes winner is now at a farm in Williston, Fla.

“He’s out there for some R & R and we’ll re-X-ray it in six weeks,” trainer Kelly Breen said. “His return depends on Mother Nature. We’re hoping that’s it, and that he’s back in no time.”

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Few $7,500 claims turn into stakes winners. Winiliscious could join that select group Sunday in the $75,000 Monmouth Beach Stakes for fillies and mares at Monmouth Park. She faces five rivals in the one mile, 70 yards race, including the comebacking Cash for Clunkers, as the holiday weekend continues on the Jersey Shore.

The 12-race card starting at 12:50 p.m. Eastern features a second distaff stakes, the $75,000 Miss Liberty on the turf.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Pop Artist heads a solid field of older horses in a $25,000 claiming race that will serve as Sunday’s feature at Hastings. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint attracted seven horses but, as usual, Pop Artist is the one to beat.

ELMONT, N.Y. – In lieu of a stakes, the Sunday feature at Belmont Park is a $77,000 first-level allowance race for fillies and mares highlighted by a pair of 3-year-olds from top barns.

Trainer Bill Mott, whose roster of stakes-caliber 3-year-old fillies is deep, sends out Charity Ball, while trainer Kiaran McLaughlin sends out the well-bred Sister State in the field of eight.