AUBURN, Wash. – A raft of nominated horses from California, Kentucky, and Ontario threatened to turn the 75th Longacres Mile into a showcase for out-of-towners, but most of those nominees fell by the wayside last week and now the Northwest’s richest race is shaping up as a turf war between the top horses at Emerald Downs and the top horses at Hastings in Vancouver, British Columbia.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Dash It Dreamer’s recent form is hard to fault if you ignore her subpar showing on the dirt at Fort Erie, and she should be prominent in Thursday’s Woodbine headliner, a second-level allowance sprint with a $62,500-claiming option.

Dash It Dreamer, a 4-year-old trained by Reade Baker, completed her 3-year-old campaign with three consecutive allowance scores, two of which were in Ontario-sired company.

DEL MAR, Calif. – It was here last summer when Pure Class first put herself on the radar, with an overpowering victory against 2-year-old maiden fillies that stamped her as one to follow for both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies that fall, perhaps even the Kentucky Oaks the following spring. But an injury last fall put an end to those aspirations, and in three starts so far this year, she only sports a first-level allowance victory.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The same horses pre-entered Friday in the 28th Arlington Million were officially entered Tuesday in an informal racing-office draw at Arlington Park, with the 7-5 morning-line favorite, Gio Ponti, landing post 6 in a 10-horse field.

With three weeks, or 18 racing days, remaining in this year’s Saratoga meet, daily averages in all-sources handle, ontrack handle, and attendance are all down compared with the same point of last year’s meet.

Through the first 22 days of this year’s expanded 40-day meet, daily average all-sources handle was $13,329,955, down 5.6 percent from last year’s daily average of $14,120,096 through the first 18 days of a 36-day meet.

Daily average ontrack handle through 22 days is $2,804,780, down 12.7 percent from last year’s daily average of $3,211,849 through 18 days.

MIAMI – Trainer Phil Gleaves will return home to south Florida this week, but stable star Mambo Meister will remain at Saratoga while his connections map out plans for the multiple graded stakes winner’s next start.

Mambo Meister is coming off a sixth-place finish behind division leader Majesticperfection in the A.G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga, a race Gleaves says he is just putting a line through, considering the circumstances.

Stolis Winner was reinstated as the winner of the 2008 All American Quarter Horse Futurity by the New Mexico Racing Commission on Monday after the panel accepted the recommendation of a trio of hearing officers in the case.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The runaway, course-record victory by Sidney’s Candy in his turf debut in the La Jolla Handicap on Saturday at Del Mar has opened a new range of possibilities for future starts, trainer John Sadler said Monday morning, with the Breeders’ Cup Mile, on grass, among the longer-term goals.

“You’ve got to be thinking about that kind of stuff,” Sadler said.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Kantharos maintained his reputation as the best 2-year-old on the East Coast – if not the country – with a relatively easy 7 1/4-length victory in Monday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Saratoga Special at Saratoga.

Bail Out the Cat, who valiantly fought with Kantharos until just outside the eighth pole, finished second by 11 3/4 lengths over the first-time starter Manchurian High. Blue Right By was last. Sovereign Default and Wetzel scratched.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After having her final breeze Monday morning at Del Mar, Kentucky Oaks winner Blind Luck was set to arrive Tuesday in Saratoga, where she is to have a showdown with the East Coast’s leading 3-year-old filly Devil May Care in Saturday’s $500,000 Alabama Stakes.

On Monday, Blind Luck worked four furlongs in 49 seconds at Del Mar, an easy move that trainer Jerry Hollendorfer termed a maintenance breeze.