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.

Informed Decision breezed over the Presque Isle surface Thursday morning, and trainer Jonathan Sheppard pronounced the 2009 Eclipse Award-winning female sprinter “ready to give a good account of herself” in Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Masters Stakes.

The Masters is the richest at Presque Isle, the northwestern Pennsylvania track where purses are fueled by revenue from 2,000 slot machines.

POMONA, Calif. – The California-bred filly U R All That I Am over achieved most of 2009. She started with a debut victory in a $12,500 maiden-claimer, ended with an autumn stakes win at Hollywood Park, and won 6 of 9 overall.

While victories were less frequent in 2010, U R All That I Am regained peak form in spring, winning two stakes at Hollywood for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. Then she came crashing to earth. She misfired in two stakes on the Del Mar grass – fifth as the favorite each time.

KD at a glance; for Sat.RACING SCHEDULE: Sept. 11, 13, 18, 20.POST TIME: Saturdays (with Turfway), 12:10 p.m. Central; Mondays (solo), 1:30 p.m.ADMISSION and PARKING: Free.HIGHLIGHTS: Three-race, $250,000 Kentucky Cup turf series on Saturday.PHONE: (270) 586-7778.INTERNET: kentuckydowns.com.By Marty McGee

Evidently the news of his demise was premature. Even Jonathan Sheppard had grave doubts that Cloudy’s Knight would ever see another racetrack when revealing that the 10-year-old gelding had suffered an injury in April, but here they are, horse, and trainer, ready to go again.

Cherokee’s Goal, who finished a solid second in the Manitoba Derby at Assiniboia Downs, should be set to score in Saturday’s $25,000 Saskatchewan Derby at Marquis Downs.

The Saskatchewan Derby, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds, traditionally is the closing-day feature but the meeting was extended by two days due to weather-related cancellations and will wind up next Saturday.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – The fall portion of the Monmouth Park season doesn’t have a snappy title like the “Elite Summer Meet” that concluded on Labor Day.

It also doesn’t have the cachet of this past summer when Monmouth handed out record purse money. The summer experiment of running fewer days was a success with attendance and handle figures showing huge gains.

But that was only the first half of the trial. Now comes a key test starting Saturday to see how well the balance of the season holds up.

DEL MAR, Calif. – J P’s Gusto is by Successful Appeal and out of a mare by Caller I.D., not exactly a pedigree that suggests distance racing would be his forte. But the manner in which he won the Grade 1, $250,000 Del Mar Futurity on closing day Wednesday gives his trainer, David Hofmans, the confidence that J P’s Gusto can stretch out, at least to 1 1/16 miles, the distance of his next scheduled race, the Norfolk Stakes on Oct. 2 during the Oak Tree meeting at Hollywood Park.