FORT ERIE, Ontario – Apprentice Betty Jo Williams has been working hard since deciding two weeks ago to make Fort Erie her home base, and her efforts are paying off.

Williams won five races last week, boosting her win percentage to a meet-leading 24 percent and moving to sixth in the rider standings with nine wins.

Williams realizes she is a late-comer to the meet and has a challenge ahead. “I am very pleased with how it has been going of late,” said Williams, “and I just hope that my luck continues.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Sid Attard will take two shots at Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Highlander Stakes, when he runs Signature Red and Jungle Wave in the six-furlong turf sprint on the Queen’s Plate undercard at Woodbine.

Signature Red captured last year’s Highlander after pressing the pace, registering a 100 Beyer Speed Figure in his first stakes triumph. He is winless since then, but has hit the board in each of his four most recent outings, all on Polytrack.

Most recently, Signature Red was a non-threatening third in the Grade 3 Vigil Stakes.

AUBURN, Wash. – Class Included, easy winner of the Seattle Handicap in her last start, headlines a small field of 3-year-old fillies in the $50,000 Irish Day Handicap on Sunday at Emerald Downs.

Only four were entered to oppose the probable odds-on favorite, and only one, Elusive Noise, has the credentials to pull off an upset. The one-mile Irish Day is the seventh race on a 10-race program that also includes the Pepsi Cola Handicap for 3-year-old colts and geldings. First post is 2 p.m. Pacific.

AUBURN, Wash. – Showme Yourfriends won the Auburn Handicap at 50-1. He’ll be a far shorter price Sunday in the $50,000 Pepsi Cola Handicap at Emerald Downs. The one-mile Pepsi Cola is the first two-turn stakes race for 3-year-olds at the meeting, and the result could help clarify the divisional pecking order in advance of the Emerald Derby in August.

The Pepsi Cola is the ninth of 10 races on a card that also includes the Irish Day Handicap for 3-year-old fillies. First post is 2 p.m. Pacific.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Funny Face looks like the one to catch in a $25,000 claiming race for 3-year-olds that will serve as Sunday’s feature at Hastings. Run at 6 1/2 furlongs, the race drew six horses, and if Funny Face comes close to repeating his last race he will be tough to beat. Post time for the first of eight races is 1:50 p.m.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Roger Attfield will be in the spotlight Sunday as the trainer of Queen’s Plate favorite Check Your Soul.

But Attfield also will have a keen interest in the Grade 3, $150,000 Singspiel Stakes, a 1 1/2-mile turf race in which he will send out the formidable pair of Musketier and Simmard.

Attfield has won three of the six runnings of the Singspiel – with Pellegrino in 2007, Musketier in 2009, and Spice Route last year.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – History could be made Sunday at Woodbine in the 152nd running of the $1 million Queen’s Plate when Roger Attfield goes for a record ninth Plate victory by a trainer with the fast-improving Check Your Soul. Also, Jockey Eurico Da Silva will seek an unprecedented third straight win in the storied race aboard Bowman’s Causeway, who should be a good value play in 1 1/4-mile and a quarter event.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The handicapping notebook is full again. And with Del Mar just around the corner it is time to start looking ahead, with stuff like this . . . .

◗ Who do you like? Is it undefeated Sarah’s Secret, who wired the June 11 Honeymoon Handicap, or is it 1-for-3 Mizdirection, tons best finishing second June 18 in the Manhattan Beach Stakes for filly sprinters? It is a close call. The 3-year-old fillies Sarah’s Secret and Mizdirection meet July 24 at Del Mar in the Grade 2 San Clemente.

Santa Anita will close its main track for as long as two weeks next month to correct an imbalance in the sand and clay content, track officials told the California Horse Racing Board on Thursday.

Track president George Haines said the main track is tentatively scheduled to close on July 11 for 10 to 14 days to allow a renovation that will remove the top part of the cushion and replace it with sand that will be blended into the remaining cushion.

Del Mar is adding two new bets for its summer meeting – a 50-cent pick five with a 14 percent takeout, and a head-to-head bet on Saturday’s featured race – and will offer a $50,000 supplement to the pick six each Sunday on days without a carryover.
The additions were announced at Thursday’s meeting of the California Horse Racing Board, and will start on opening day, July 20.