ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The unbeaten Roxy Gap will get her sternest test to date Saturday at Woodbine in the $250,000 Natalma Stakes, a one-mile grass event for 2-year-old fillies. As part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series Win and You’re In program, the winner of the Grade 3 race receives an automatic berth into the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf Nov. 5 at Churchill.

Roxy Gap won her debut with authority on the Polytrack July 3, and then doubled up in the restricted Shady Well Stakes, while earning her second straight 84 Beyer Speed Figure.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Pace. Trip. Course. Distance. None of it seems to matter to Check the Label, who has emerged as one of the top 3-year-old turf fillies in the country.

Saturday, Check the Label will seek her fourth consecutive graded stakes win when she returns to Belmont Park to meet seven rivals in the Grade 1, $250,00 Garden City Breeders’ Cup, run at 1 1/8 miles over the inner turf.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Usual Q.T., one of three California shippers, drew post 11 at a ceremonial draw for Sunday’s Woodbine Mile in the trackside tent here Thursday afternoon.

The Grade 1, $1 million Woodbine Mile, a turf race for 3-year-olds and upward, attracted a field of 13, and The Usual Q.T. has been made the 3-1 morning-line favorite by Woodbine oddsmaker Ernie Perri.

The Woodbine Mile is a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In race, with the winner earning a free berth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – At the Disco, the pacesetter in the Grade 3 Red Bank Stakes, returns to the New Jersey-bred ranks on Saturday in the Charles Hesse III Handicap at Monmouth Park.

The Hesse is one of four $100,000 stakes on the 12-race card devoted exclusively to horses bred in the Garden State.

It’s a day to showcase many of the leading statebred runners and draw attention to the New Jersey’s flagging breeding industry.

POMONA, Calif. – There was a fuss at Del Mar this summer when Cactus Jane won her debut in a $40,000 maiden claimer, despite one month without a published workout.

Several bettors were annoyed the filly ran well despite the absence of recent workouts. Cactus Jane won clear under Victor Espinoza, and returned $14.80 as trainer Adam Kitchingman celebrated his birthday with what some perceived as a betting coup.

In her brief racing career, the Maryland-based 2-year-old filly Twelve Pack Shelly has already won a $100,000 stakes, placed in a graded event for males, and set a Laurel Park track record. Despite her imposing credentials, Twelve Pack Shelly didn’t scare away the competition and will face a full field of nine others in Saturday night’s $100,000 Miss Shenandoah Stakes at Charles Town.

The purse increase that went into effect at Louisiana Downs last Saturday was rescinded beginning with Thursday’s 10-race program.

The two-day, $4,000-per-race hike represented a substantial 25percent increase over previous levels. The additional purse money will instead be distributed retroactively to when the meeting began in early May, according to the president of the Louisiana Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, Sean Alfortish.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Roger Attfield will not have an entrant in Sunday’s Woodbine Mile. But that will be the only local stakes dance which will take place without an Attfield presence this weekend.

On Sunday, Attfield has entered Spice Route and Perfect Shower in the Grade 1, $750,000 Northern Dancer, a 1 1/2-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and upward, and Miss Keller in the Grade 2, $300,000 Canadian, a 1 1/8-mile turf race for fillies and mares.

On Saturday, Attfield has Stormy Rush in the $250,000 Summer and Sheba’s Secret in the $200,000 Natalma.

The Grade 3, $200,000 Connally Turf Cup is the richest of 14 stakes that Sam Houston Race Park will pack into a 27-date meet that opens Jan. 21. The1 1/8-mile race for older horses is to be run Jan. 29 as part of a consolidated schedule that will feature record purses of $160,000 a program. The season will continue through March 7.

“We’re thrilled to be offering a boutique meet,” said Andrea Young, president of Sam Houston. “This is the window of time when our meet has always been the best.”

Belle of the Hall and Derwin’s Star, separated by less than a length when they met three months ago in a $200,000 stakes, challenge queen of the West Virginia-bred fillies Down Town Allen in the $400,000 Charles Town Oaks on Saturday.

The seven-furlong Oaks, the richest sprint for 3-year-old fillies in the country, headlines a four-stakes card that begins at 6 p.m. Eastern and includes two other six-figure races, the Miss Shenandoah and the Charles Town Juvenile.