VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Ruffy Joe will help give trainer Carl Lausten a big shot in both divisions of the CTHS Sales Stakes at Hastings this weekend when he runs in the colts and geldings division Sunday. The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds drew seven horses and goes as race 6 on the eighth-race card, which begins at 1:50 p.m. Pacific.

Dance the Wind figures to be a solid favorite for Lausten in the fillies division Saturday, and although Ruffy Joe is stretching out to a middle distance for the first time, he looks like the one to beat Sunday.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – There are just two weeks left before the Hastings meet ends Oct. 14, and local trainers are making plans for the winter.

Turf Paradise has become the place to go, and there will be a strong contingent from Hastings when that meet opens on Oct. 5. Last year trainer Phil Hall led Hastings-based trainers there with 19 wins for earnings of $146,868. The guaranteed sunshine is just one of the reasons Hall and what seems like half of the Hastings backstretch find Turf Paradise attractive.

FORT ERIE, Ontario – Wayne Todd began watching the Thoroughbreds at Fort Erie in the mid-1950’s when his father took him to a roadside by this border oval and the two of them watched the racing action free of charge.

Todd, now 64, recalls how he found his love of horse racing and then built that relationship into a 44-year career at the track, mostly spent in the mutuels department.

“Beginning in 1968, while working on my systems analysis degree, I spent five years working part-time at the Fort,” said Todd.

MIAMI - Trainer Ron Pellegrini reports that Angelica Zapata, who has dominated the two-turn races for older fillies and mares here this summer, came out of her recent victory in good order and will have one more start before the session ends on Nov. 30.

Angelica Zapata returned from an 11-week layoff to post an easy 7 1/2-length victory in the Stage Door Betty Handicap here last Saturday. The win was the fourth in a row, all stakes, for the 4-year-old daughter of Sharp Humor since May 19.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Pierrot Lunaire, the longest shot in the field of 10, won a spirited stretch drive by a nose over Spy in the Sky to take Thursday’s Grade 1, $150,000 Lonesome Glory Steeplechase.

Pierrot Lunaire, trained by Blythe Miller Davies, hadn’t won a race since May 2009, when he captured the Grade 1 Iroquois under Miller Davies. Thursday, he was ridden by Bernard Dalton, who had fallen in the previous race here, but obviously escaped without injury.

ELMONT, N.Y. – As if Saturday’s card at Belmont Park wasn’t hot enough, there is the added spice of a $96,841 pick-six carryover into the Super Saturday program.

The pick six went unhit for a second consecutive day Thursday, and with Friday’s card canceled due to the anticipation of an inch of rain, the carryover goes into Saturday’s card.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Kauai Katie, winner of the Grade 2 Adirondack Stakes at Saratoga, tops a field of six juvenile fillies entered to run six furlongs in Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Matron at Belmont Park.

Kauai Katie, a daughter of Malibu Moon owned by the Stonesteet Stables and trained by Todd Pletcher, won her debut on opening day at Saratoga by 12 lengths before coming back to win the Adirondack on Aug. 12 by 2 3/4 lengths. She drew the outside post in the field of six.

ELMONT, N.Y. – The speedy New York-bred Weekend Hideaway will test his talents against open company when he runs in Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Futurity Stakes at Belmont Park.

The Futurity, which can be used as a possible prep for the $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint, drew a field of seven topped by the Todd Pletcher-trained duo of Overanalyze and Drum Roll, as well as the impressive maiden winner Carried Interest.

ELMONT, N.Y. – The $400,000 Kelso Handicap may officially be labeled a Grade 2 race, but it drew a Grade 1 field led by Woodward winner To Honor and Serve and Metropolitan Handicap winner Shackleford.

The Kelso, which last year was moved from the turf to one mile on the dirt, is a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 3.

Shackleford earned his way into the BC Dirt Mile by winning the Met Mile here in May by a nose over Caleb’s Posse, the winner of last year’s BC Dirt Mile who is now retired.

MIAMI – It’s been three months since Brave Dave defeated Singanothersong by 1 1/4 lengths in the most impressive of the dozens of maiden races contested this summer at Calder. Those two rivals will square off for the second time on Saturday in the $100,000 Birdonthewire Stakes, with Brave Dave looking to build on his recent victory in the Grade 3 Sapling and Singanothersong trying to rebound from his disappointing two-turn debut in the Seacliff Stakes.