ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Wayne Catalano has trained the winner of the Arlington-Washington Lassie two of the last three years, with She Be Wild going on to a 2-year-old filly championship in 2009. And with the uncoupled entry of Jordy Y and Honey Chile set to go in Saturday’s edition of the race, the Catalano barn has a strong chance to win it again.

Jordy Y and Honey Chile were among 13 horses entered in the Lassie, one of two Grade 3, $100,000, one-turn-mile Polytrack races for 2-year-olds at Arlington on Saturday. The Lassie goes as race 8, the Futurity as race 6.

In the absence of its premier fall stakes, the Frank De Francis Memorial Dash, Laurel Park will rely on its lush turf course and Jim McKay Maryland Million Day to create some excitement during a 57-day day meet that begins Saturday and continues through Dec. 18.

The De Francis Dash, downgraded from Grade 1 to Grade 2 status, has been put on hiatus for the second time in the last three years to divert its $300,000 purse into overnight races.

ELMONT, N.Y. − Fate rarely plays a role in serious handicapping. It may be hard to ignore fate when it comes to assessing the chances of Aces Mark in Saturday’s eighth race at Belmont Park.

Every race in America should look something like this: an overflow of entries with as many as 14 stakes-caliber starters, no clear-cut favorite, a bettor’s delight. The $50,000 Ladies Turf at Kentucky Downs will start the 2010 Kentucky Cup series the right way, with maybe a half-dozen fillies and mares or more sporting the credentials to make her a deserving winner.

ELMONT, N.Y. – With the Breeders’ Cup World Championships returning to dirt for the first time in three years – albeit at Churchill Downs – the significance of the Belmont fall meet is once again heightened.

Even with the elimination of six stakes and the purse reduction of 10 others at the meet, Belmont, which opens its 37-day fall season Saturday, will offer the majority of the most important dirt races in the country on the road to the Breeders’ Cup, to be held Nov. 5-6 in Louisville.

DEL MAR, Calif. – There was great anxiety before the Del Mar meeting started seven weeks ago, owing to the overall economy and the declining horse population in the California. Yet Del Mar’s business was better than anyone could have expected during the 37-day meeting that ended Wednesday, with daily average attendance increasing, and daily average handle down, but with that decline nearly mirroring the fewer number of races run this summer.

An enduring paradox in marathon races is that speed tends to do well. If that holds true Saturday, when the $100,000 Turfway Park Fall Championship is run at 1 1/2 miles over Polytrack, Frank Stronach might have an automatic ticket to the Breeders’ Cup.

Stronach bred and owns Sligovitz, a 5-year-old with the right mixture of speed and class to be a factor throughout the Fall Championship, a Grade 3 race that carries a Win and You’re In designation toward the Breeders’ Cup Marathon at Churchill Downs in November.

AUBURN, Wash. – With the Emerald Downs meeting winding down, some promising 2-year-olds will try to get a jump on 2011 in Saturday’s fifth race, a $40,000 maiden claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs. Though not technically the feature race, it boasts the card’s highest purse ($15,000) and most talented runners, a few of which seem destined for stakes when they return as 3-year-olds next spring.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario − Jacally and Dancing Raven will renew their rivalry Saturday at Woodbine in the $125,000 La Prevoyante Stakes, a one-mile turf event for Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies.

Secret Gypsy’s racing career looked like it might be over 13 months ago, when she returned from a 10th-place finish in a turf sprint at Saratoga with injuries to both knees and one ankle. Surgery was performed on all three joints, and she was given plenty of time to rehab in a hyperbaric chamber and on a water treadmill.

Not only has Secret Gypsy made it back to the races this year, she appears better than ever after winning last month’s Grade 2 Honorable Miss at Saratoga.