ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Boy’s Ring will take a two-race win streak into Friday’s feature at Woodbine Racetrack, a second-level allowance with a $62,500 claiming option which has also lured three stakes winners. The Boy’s Ring, a homebred owned and trained by Paul Buttigieg, has won 3 of 6 starts at the meet, which includes a pair of Ontario-sired allowance victories. His Oct. 6 tally, which followed a summer layoff, came against nonwinners-of-three Ontario-sired stock, and he was awarded a modest 74 Beyer Speed Figure.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Roger Attfield is busy setting up shop at his winter headquarters in Payson Park, Fla., following a business trip to Japan with the filly Ave and a brief holiday in Hawaii. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Attfield probably will not be seen here at Woodbine Racetrack until the Sovereign Award ceremony next April 1.

“I’m sending them out of there pretty quickly,” said Attfield. “There are not that many horses with races left, and some of their races aren’t going.”

Trainer Tim McCanna has past history on his side to explain his confidence in Saratoga Boot going into Friday’s Grade 3, $100,000 All American at Golden Gate Fields.

Saratoga Boot – one of two 3-year-olds in the field of eight in the 1 1/8-mile Tapeta race – is the only runner in the field with a victory at the distance.

New Jersey shipper D’wild Ride, who came across the Delaware River two months ago to win an allowance race with an inflated purse of $110,000, duplicated the feat Tuesday when she overtook pacesetter Noble Maz in the stretch to win the $75,000 Cornucopia Stakes for filly and mare sprinters at Parx Racing.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Derek Ryan has only one victory from 32 stakes starters this year, but he knows he is only a few body parts away from having a career year.

“It was one of those years,” Ryan said Tuesday from Monmouth Park. “It was a good year − it could have been great.”

One of the most excruciating defeats for Ryan came in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct, where his Musket Man was beaten a nose by Warrior’s Reward. That loss came about three weeks after Schoolyard Dreams was beaten a nose by Odysseus in the Tampa Bay Derby.

NEW ORLEANS -- Looking out over the Fair Grounds main track at the end of training hours Monday, Al Stall pointed to one of the horses he trains breaking off into an easy jog.

“That’s Blame’s full sister,” Stall said. “Look at her. She’s just like him. She’s relaxed like him, her hind end looks just like him.”

NEW ORLEANS – Fair Grounds, one assumes, has nowhere to go but up when its 2010-2011 racing season commences Thursday.

Average daily handle from all sources fell more than 11 percent in 2008-2009 compared to the previous season, but that decline was nothing compared to what happened during Fair Grounds’ most recent meeting. Business during the 2009-2010 meet was down 30 percent for much of the winter, and by meet’s end, average daily all-sources handle had dropped 20 percent even from those deflated 2008-2009 figures.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Thursday’s 97th running of the Fall Highweight Handicap at Aqueduct could easily be renamed the Fall Middleweight Handicap. None of the five top-weighted horses – including the 140-pound highweight Girolamo – entered the Grade 3 race, leaving a competitive if not compelling field of nine carrying anywhere from 126 to 129 pounds.

The Fall Highweight, run at six furlongs, is the traditional Thanksgiving Day feature and goes as race 8 on a nine-race card that begins at 11:25 a.m. Eastern and concludes at 3:10 p.m.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Apart was assigned post 2 when 11 3-year-olds and upward were entered Tuesday for the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, which will be run Friday for the 136th time at Churchill Downs. As a 3-year-old owned by Adele Dilschneider and trained by Al Stall Jr., Apart will be trying to follow in the footsteps of his more accomplished former stablemate, Blame, winner of the 2009 Clark on his way to a triumph in the Breeders’ Cup Classic nearly a year later.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Astrology heads a prospective field of eight or nine colts and geldings for the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, while Aide and Kathmanblu lead the likely cast for the sister race, the Golden Rod Stakes. Both are Grade 2, $150,000 races that will be run at 1 1/16 miles Saturday.

Astrology, winner of the Iroquois Stakes here opening day, Oct. 31, will be favored in a field that also likely will include Cane Garden Bay, Major Gain, Rogue Romance, and Trubs. Other contenders for the Golden Rod include Gran Lioness and Missyoulikecrazy.