VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Golden Triumph figures to be a handful when he runs in a first-level allowance race for 3-year-olds and up that will serve as Saturday’s feature at Hastings. There is also a clause in the conditions of the race that makes B.C.-bred nonwinners-of-three eligible to the race. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint drew eight horses and goes as race 7 on the eighth race card that begins at 1:50 p.m. Pacific.

Zucchini Flower, who missed by a nose coming off a freshening in the Twin Lights at Monmouth Park late last month, may be poised for a breakthrough in Saturday’s $50,000 Christiana Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/8 miles on turf at Delaware Park.

Trained by Graham Motion, Zucchini Flower is 0 for 3 on grass, but produced the best race of her 10-race career on Aug. 26 when she lost in a photo to wire-to-wire winner Closing Range. Zucchini Flower came home her last three furlongs in the nine-furlong Twin Lights in an excellent 34.55 seconds.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Craig MacPherson reported that Second City came out of his win over Devil in Disguise in the Grade 3 British Columbia Derby last Sunday in excellent shape but wasn’t sure where Second City would make his next start.

MIAMI – Sr. Quisqueyano, D’nied Permission, and Itsmyluckyday, each of whom won stakes on last month’s Juvenile Showcase program, will all cross paths in Saturday’s $100,000 Foolish Pleasure Stakes at Calder. The mile-and-70-yard Foolish Pleasure is one of four stakes on a card that also includes the $100,000 Brave Raj for 2-year-old fillies, and both the $75,000 Needles and $75,000 Judy’s Red Shoes for 3-year-olds on the grass.

Balooga Bull, who has stamped himself as the best horse at Assiniboia Downs, will be looking to wind up his sophomore campaign on a high note when he faces eight rivals in Saturday’s Gold Cup.

The $50,000 Gold Cup, a 1 1/8-mile race which is the premier local test for 3-year-olds and upward, will go as the last of eight races on a program that also includes the $50,000 Winnipeg Futurity for 2-year-olds.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – It’s not like North American racing fans require regular reminders concerning the superiority of European grass horses, but Arlington Million Day provided one anyway. Euros won three of Million Day’s four major races, and with better luck Million runner-up Afsare might have made it a clean overseas sweep. A month later the landscape looks the same, with two European imports among the favorites Saturday in the Grade 3, $175,000 Pucker Up Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile grass race for 3-year-old fillies.

The 3-year-old filly Charged Cotton successfully handled a stretch out from 5 1/2 furlongs to a mile last month. Now, she will attempt to run an additional furlong while stepping up to stakes company.

Charged Cotton also will be moving into Maryland-bred company for the first time Saturday in the $100,000 All Brandy Stakes, scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the turf course at Laurel Park. She is cross-entered in Saturday’s $50,000 Christiana for 3-year-old fillies at Delaware Park.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Are You Kidding Me, who won the allowance prep for the Summer Stakes over a mediocre group, will jump up to Grade 2 stakes company Saturday at Woodbine in the $250,000 Summer. The one-mile grass race for 2-year-olds is a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In event, meaning the winner receives a paid trip to the BC Juvenile Turf in November at Santa Anita.

Saturday’s card also includes the $250,000 Natalma, a Win and You’re In for the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Turallure won last year’s Grade 1 Woodbine Mile for trainer Charlie Lopresti at odds of 6-1.

But when Wise Dan goes postward for Lopresti in this year’s $1 million Woodbine Mile on Sunday it will be at a considerably lower price, based on his dominant last-out victory in Saratoga’s Grade 2 Fourstardave over one mile of yielding going.

Post positions for the Woodbine Mile were announced here Thursday at a ceremonial draw in the trackside tent.

Four weeks after being good enough to salvage a dead heat for third in the Arlington Million, Rahystrada will be back in Franklin, Ky., to defend his title in the premier race of the Kentucky Downs meet, the Grade 3 Kentucky Turf Cup.

All signs point to him being good enough to win again.

“I think he’s obviously as good as he was last year,” said Scooter Hughes, who trains 8-year-old Rahystrada for Robert Courtney Jr. “He hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down or not wanting to do it.”