SHAKOPEE, Minn. – The Claiming Crown has long been a melting pot, bringing together horses from East and West coasts and numerous points in between on a terrific day of racing.

ALTOONA, Iowa – Saturday’s Prairie Meadows Handicap has had its distance extended to 1 1/4 miles from 1 1/16 miles this year and its purse increased by $25,000 to $100,000. None of the entrants in the six-horse field has previously won at the distance.

Country Flavor enters off a victory in the one-mile Hanshin Cup at Arlington Park. Trainer Greg Geier selected this spot to prepare Country Flavor for the 1 3/16 miles of the Washington Park Handicap at Arlington Park on Sept. 4.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar set an attendance record of 45,309 on Wednesday’s opening day of the summer meeting, surpassing a record that lasted for all of one year.

“That’s a terrific crowd,” said Del Mar’s chief executive, Joe Harper.

The handle figures were not as robust. The all-sources handle figure of $12,637,828 was down 4 percent from the $13,182,195 from 2009. The on-track handle of $3,813,090 was down 3.9 percent from the 3,954,701 bet in 2008.

Salt Flat Speed will be the one to catch when he goes for his fifth win in a row Saturday in the $50,000 Don Fleming Handicap at Northlands Park. Salt Flat Speed will likely be favored, but he could be vulnerable in the 1 1/16-mile feature that drew seven older horses and goes as race 7.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Stormy Lord, a front-running type who is coming off a second-place finish in the July 11 Charlie Barley over one mile of turf, will have an extra furlong to negotiate over the same course here in Saturday’s Toronto Cup.

But with Charlie Barley winner So Elite headed to Saratoga and no new rivals with imposing turf credentials, Stormy Lord remains the one to beat in the $150,000 Toronto Cup.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Jamie Ness was a press box intern when the first Claiming Crown was run in 1999 at Canterbury Park. Suffice it to say that a lot has changed since then, as Ness, a top-five trainer in North America with 150 wins so far this year, will be back at his old stomping grounds Saturday to saddle two of the six starters in what has become the annual Canterbury showcase, the $150,000 Claiming Crown Jewel.

Ness, who currently has about 100 active runners, will run For All Who Conga and My Friend Nev in the Jewel, the anchor of the six-race, $500,000 Claiming Crown.

With two quick sprinters who drew the inside posts and a stakes-winning stalker in the field for Saturday’s Emerald Downs feature, Crocodile Tuff should get a nice setup in the one-mile $32,000 optional claimer for fillies and mares.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Twirling Candy stretched his unbeaten streak to three with a victory in his stakes debut in the $112,500 Oceanside Stakes on Wednesday's opening day at Del Mar. The winning margin was 2 1/4 lengths over Macias, and it did not seem that close.

Ridden by Joel Rosario, Twirling Candy was easily moving away from nine rivals at the end of the one-mile Oceanside, the colt's first start around two turns and first race on turf.

"He ran good for the first time on turf," Rosario said. "I thought it was perfect. I made sure he was clear."

DEL MAR, Calif. - The economy is stagnant, the state's budget ledger is blood-red, and racing in California is going through a rough patch. Yet when it comes to opening-day at Del Mar, all of that matters not a whit.

A boisterous crowd ready to party for seven weeks stuffed itself into Del Mar for opening day on Wednesday, under overcast skies that kept the temperature in the upper 60s. The grandstand was packed from the top of the stretch through the grandstand, and on up into the turf club, where the fashion-conscious came for the social event of the summer in San Diego County.

FORT ERIE, Ontario – Big Red Mike, the front-running winner of Woodbine’s 1 1/4-mile Queen’s Plate on July 4, has been made the 6-5 choice for the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes here Sunday.

A field of eight was announced for the Prince of Wales, the 1 3/16-mile second leg of the Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, at a ceremonial draw here Wednesday afternoon.

Big Red Mike, trained by the Fort Erie-based Nick Gonzalez, will be a sentimental as well as probable pari-mutuel favorite when he begins from post 4 under his regular rider Eurico Rosa da Silva.