AUBURN, Wash. - The real Clair Annette - the relentless, front-running one - should be on display Sunday in the $50,000 King County Handicap, trainer Connie Bouslaugh said this week.

Emerald Downs' first two-turn test of the meeting for fillies and mares, the one-mile King County attracted nine nominees, though the field was expected to shrink to perhaps a half-dozen when entries were taken Wednesday. Clair Annette figures to be one of the betting favorites, the likely second choice behind Gadget Queen, even though Clair Annette has yet to win in 2010.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The defection of four horses in a 48-hour span left the racing office scrambling to fill Saturday's $300,000 Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park. In the end, the Grade 2 race went with a field of seven, led by returning graded stakes winners I Want Revenge and Regal Ransom.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Julien Leparoux fits the Friday night demographic. Twentysomething, single, and unavoidably hip, Leparoux was among the 25,012 who turned out to have a good time June 11 for "disco night" during the first Friday night program at the 2010 Churchill Downs spring meet.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When the Saturday overnight sheet came out Wednesday at Churchill Downs, the most important news wasn't what was on it - even though a pair of Grade 3 races are on tap.

No, the most noteworthy development was what wasn't on the overnight: a $63,000 allowance race for Saturday failed to fill, meaning the 4-year-old debut of 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird has been momentarily delayed.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It is not easy for the 3-year-old filly City to City to gain attention in trainer Jerry Hollendorfer's stable at Hollywood Park. The same barn houses fellow 3-year-old filly Blind Luck, the winner of the Kentucky Oaks in April.

At least City to City does not have to face Blind Luck. Blind Luck has raced on dirt or synthetic tracks throughout her career; City to City has become a turf specialist.

MIAMI - What did a 3-year-old filly named Trip for A.J. accomplish for Milt Wolfson here last weekend that no lawyer could do? Get the veteran trainer a little satisfaction for what he believed to be a miscarriage of justice that took place over the same racetrack nearly two years earlier.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - The fireworks will begin a little early this weekend at Louisiana Downs with the meeting's first stakes action for 2-year-olds on Saturday. Set for five furlongs on turf, the $50,000 Minstrel and $50,000 Princess Stakes will join two other turf stakes, the $50,000 Top Courage and the $50,000 Barksdale Stakes, on a program that is being billed as the second of four "Super Saturdays" this meet.

De Gannes, Fredericks, and Ramsammy also will be teaming up here Saturday with Naval Attack, who is entered in the $150,000 Clarendon Stakes.

Naval Attack, purchased for $40,000 at the select local yearling sale, will be making his first start in the Clarendon, a 5 1/2-furlong race for Ontario-foaled 2-year-olds.

"I think he's a pretty nice 2-year-old," said De Gannes. "I wouldn't be going in a stake with him in his first start, otherwise."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Greg De Gannes was involved in several Queen's Plates during his days as a racetrack veterinarian.

De Gannes was with trainer Barbara Minshall's stable when that outfit finished third and fourth in the 1995 Queen's Plate with Mt. Sassafras and Kiridashi, and second the following year with Stephanotis. Later, De Gannes was an assistant to trainer Mark Casse when Long Pond and Kent Ridge prepared for the 2004 Queen's Plate, in which they failed to threaten.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Wasted Tears, one of the top turf mares in the country, could be headed to Saratoga. Her trainer, Bart Evans, said he is leaning toward running Wasted Tears at Saratoga later this month in the Grade 1, $500,000 Diana. He also is debating whether to start her in a stakes at either Arlington Park or Del Mar.

"I'd like to run her in a Grade 1," Evans said Wednesday. "If I can make the right kind of connections, Saratoga will probably be where we go."