Gourmet Dinner is perfect in two starts, including a victory in the Dr. Fager Stakes, the first leg of the open division of the Florida Stallion Stakes. Awesome Feather is perfect in three starts, her most recent victory coming in the Desert Vixen division of the Stallion series.

On Saturday, the two leaders of their divisions will be heavily favored when they headline Calder’s Juvenile Showcase program. The entire 13-race card consists of 2-year-old races, including the middle legs of the Stallion Stakes, the $100,000 Affirmed and Susan’s Girl Stakes.

ALTOONA, Iowa – Prairie Meadows hosts a second night of Quarter Horse Challenge races on Saturday. The three stakes are qualifiers for the 2010 Challenge Championships to be held Nov. 20 at Fair Grounds.

In the $27,270 Merial Distaff Challenge, nine fillies and mares will sprint 400 yards. Ed Ross Hardy sends out four fresh entrants. “Pretty much we’ve been prepping for this,” said Hardy.

DEL MAR, Calif. – It would be hard to imagine a more emotionally draining month than one experienced by trainer Jerry Hollendorfer this August. He looked on helplessly as the top mare in his barn, Tuscan Evening, dropped dead, likely from a heart attack, after a work at Del Mar. Just 13 days later, he watched on television as the horse Tuscan Evening had beaten in a key prep race, Eclaire de Lune, won the Beverly D.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – The Quick Call Stakes on July 29 at Saratoga produced a nail-biting finish with Beau Choix prevailing by a head over Lonesome Street with Lighthouse Sound also right there in the photo.

That trio are about to meet again, only this time they take the show on the road.

The rematch comes Saturday in the $100,000 Restoration Stakes for 3-year-olds going 1 1/8 miles on the turf at Monmouth Park.

The Restoration shares top billing with another $100,000 stakes, the Miss Woodford for 3-year-old filly sprinters.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Rachel Alexandra, the reigning Horse of the Year, drew post 2 and was made the 2-5 morning-line favorite for Sunday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga.

It will be Rachel Alexandra’s first start in a Grade 1 race since she won the Woodward against older males here last September. Rachel Alexandra, who has won both the Fleur de Lis and the Lady’s Secret stakes in her last two starts, will carry high weight of 122 pounds under jockey Calvin Borel. This will be her first start at 1 1/4 miles.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Discreetly Mine vaulted to the top of the 3-year-old sprint division with his brilliant performance in the Grade 2 Amsterdam earlier this month. The question is whether Discreetly Mine can duplicate that performance when he returns less than four weeks later and stretches out an additional sixteenth of a mile to seven furlongs against a stellar field in Saturday’s Grade 1 King’s Bishop at Saratoga.

I didn’t know what a Travers was in 1977. I bet on my first one in 1978, watched my first at Saratoga a year later, and haven’t missed being there for one since. It may sound like a long time, but in reality, Saturday’s 141st edition will be only my 33rd.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A cutback in distance, a drop in class, and a favorable set-up may give Katy Now a slight edge in a competitive field of 3-year-old fillies entered in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Victory Ride Stakes at Saratoga.

The Victory Ride, run at six furlongs, is the first leg of a pick-four wager that includes the Ballerina, King’s Bishop and Travers, with a guaranteed pool of $1 million.

John Mabee and several other California horsemen founded the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and began running summer racing meets at the track by the Pacific Ocean in 1970. Attendance and handle showed steady growth, but in 1988 off-track betting was introduced in California, and tracks were challenged to avoid the erosion of on-track customers.

AUBURN, Wash. –Trainer Brad Varner and his crew do things the old-fashioned way. From the boss on down, everyone associated with his Emerald Downs racing operation is older than 50. They call themselves the AARP Barn, though Varner, 60, isn’t necessarily the retiring type.