OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Boys At Tosconova provided another reason to get excited about his showdown with Uncle Mo in next month’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs by working a sensational six furlongs in 1:10.90 on Thursday morning at Aqueduct.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer David Donk isn’t as concerned with what type of turf Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Athenia Stakes at Belmont Park is run on, just that it simply is run on the turf at all.

“We don’t run if it comes off,” Donk, who has Strike the Bell entered in the Athenia.

While the forecast in the New York area for Saturday is for dry weather, the forecast for Thursday night into Friday was for between one and two inches of windswept rain. Belmont’s turf was already listed as yielding for Thursday, a card in which two races were transferred to the main track.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Trainer Bruce Alexander had the post-position blues after the draw for the $70,000 College of New Jersey Stakes for fillies and mares on Saturday at Monmouth Park.

Lady Alexander, the star of his stable this summer, landed the rail – rarely a good spot going six furlongs at Monmouth.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – All of the prep races for the 2010 Breeders’ Cup are in the books. Well, almost all. The timing of the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, set for Saturday at Keeneland, might be cutting it a bit close, but if Evening Jewel runs like she has all year long, she will still be able to meet up in Louisville with all the other Breeders’ Cup prospects who had their final preps in the last few weeks.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The E.P. Taylor Stakes generally attracts several European fillies and mares, lured by the 1 1/4-mile turf race’s Grade 1 status and $1 million purse. But the European influence in Saturday’s renewal of the race is unprecedented − no fewer than eight of the 10 entrants will be European shippers.

“It looks like I’m representing all of North America,” said Roger Attfield, the locally based trainer who will send out Miss Keller and Mekong Melody.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Bridgetown returns to Woodbine on Saturday in the $500,000 Nearctic Stakes, and the rapid 3-year-old should be prominent throughout the six-furlong turf sprint. Along with first money, the winner of the Grade 1 event will receive an automatic berth in the Nov. 6 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs.

HURON TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Michigan’s best will do battle Saturday when Pinnacle Race Course stages the Michigan Sire Stakes, a series of six races with total purses of $300,000 which features the progeny of Michigan sires.

Saturday’s card is a welcome day in what has been a difficult season at Pinnacle, which had its racing dates cut in half to 42 programs by the state, which is facing a large budget deficit and refused to pay the salaries of racing officials this year. The track has raced only on weekends.

Can Russell Road become the third horse to win back-to-back runnings of the West Virginia Breeders’ Classic, joining Confucius Say and Speed Whiz? Or can Black Belt continue a trend in which 3-year-olds have won the last two runnings of the race?

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Make Music for Me has had a somewhat unconventional career.

He was third in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity as a maiden last year as a 2-year-old, and won his first race in his seventh career start in the Pasadena Stakes on turf at Santa Anita last March. Later in the spring, he was fourth in the Kentucky Derby and ninth in the Belmont Stakes on June 5, his most recent start.

The win in the minor turf stakes last March looms as a major factor when Make Music for Me makes his comeback in Saturday’s $150,000 Oak Tree Derby on turf at Hollywood Park.

Poseidon’s Warrior and Steady Warrior, both coming off dominant victories in six-figure stakes at other Mid-Atlantic tracks, return to Delaware Park for the most intriguing of four stakes on Saturday’s card restricted to Delaware-certified horses.

All four stakes are worth $75,000 and are limited to horses that spent a minimum of 90 days on a Delaware farm or training facility prior to March 31 of their 2-year-old year.