Ruby’s Big Band, who has been the top 3-year-old filly racing at Assiniboia Downs this year, and Golden Stripe, the leading older female in the province, will clash in the $72,500 Matron Stakes on Friday.

The 1 1/8-mile Matron attracted a field of eight, which also includes Preservata, whose hold on the older female division has slipped this year, and Anna Bella, upset winner of the Winnipeg Sun.

Ruby’s Big Band, trained by Charlie Smith, has won 6 of her 7 starts at Assiniboia Downs, including the 1 1/16-mile Assiniboia Oaks via disqualification.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – If Bearrock N Roll can come close to repeating his sharp performance in a first-level optional $30,000 claiming race Aug. 15, he will be tough to beat in a similar race at Hastings on Friday. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up drew six horses and will go as race 3.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – With the Californians checking in late Tuesday afternoon, the Europeans arriving shortly thereafter, and the main turf course open for training on Wednesday morning, the countdown has begun to this weekend’s quintet of graded turf stakes at Woodbine.

The action will begin Saturday with a pair of Grade 3 races for 2-year-olds, the Natalma Stakes and the Summer Stakes, both of which are in the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In series.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Gas N Dash had valid excuses in his two most recent races and should get back on track in Friday’s eighth race at Woodbine, a seven-furlong allowance for Ontario-sired runners.

Gas N Dash scored twice in seven outings last year but is winless in eight appearances at this stand. He wound up second in three of those races, which were all at Friday’s nonwinners-of-three level. Three starts ago, he was beaten a neck going seven furlongs after setting an honest pace.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Trainer Wayne Catalano is thinking Keeneland-Breeders’ Cup for Arlington-Washington Futurity winner Major Gain, but maybe not in the way that others are thinking.

Rather than aim Major Gain for the Breeders’ Futurity on Polytrack and then the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on dirt, Catalano and Major Gain’s owners, Gary and Mary West, are considering the colt for the $100,000 Bourbon Stakes, a turf race Oct. 10 at Keeneland. That could lead to a start in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, if Major Gain takes to the track.

The Southwest region could contribute two starters on significant win streaks to next month’s Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady at Keeneland. Wasted Tears, a winner of her last seven starts, is training toward the Oct. 9 race, while Category Seven, who picked up her fifth straight win last month, is being seriously considered for a start in the First Lady.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Belmont has gone retro for the first Thursday at the fall meet, with a solid card that includes four filly-and-mare allowance races, a $35,000 claiming sprint open to all comers (remember those?), a couple of one-mile maiden specials for 2-year-olds, and an all-turf late pick four that is actually de rigueur these days: Should Mother Nature cooperate, this would be the 20th one of the season in New York.

Jockey Michael Martinez, whose spinal cord was severed in a horrific racing spill Sunday at Golden Gate Fields, could be a candidate for implantation of embryonic stem cells in hopes of mending the spinal cord.

The 24-year-old rider’s life hung in the balance Monday when bleeding in his brain began at a high rate before being stabilized by Monday afternoon. His condition at Highland Hospital in Oakland, Calif., remained critical but stable on Tuesday.

POMONA, Calif. – The front-runner Sugar Spike is expected to start favored Thursday in the race-10 feature at Fairplex Park, a first-level allowance/optional $40,000 claimer for California-bred filly-mare sprinters in which Sugar Spike is the controlling speed.

The 6 1/2-furlong distance, however, presents a major challenge for Sugar Spike, whose lead diminished in both career wins at six furlongs. In two tries at 6 1/2, she finished out of the money.

Trainer Richard Mandella had some initial misgivings about sending Acaffella north to run in the Angel Island Stakes given the presence of undefeated Luckarack, a two-time stakes winner in the field.

Luckarack’s trainer, Steve Specht, experienced a similar feeling when he watched jockey Russell Baze gallop Acaffella in a prerace leg-stretcher Friday morning.

Specht’s misgivings were better placed than Mandella’s after Acaffella made an explosive move into the lane and pulled away to win the 1 1/16-mile Angel Island by six lengths.