MIAMI - Big Drama returned from a more than nine-month layoff to win last Saturday's Ponche Handicap in impressive fashion. But it was the performance the previous afternoon of the old-timer Lord Robyn that may have had David Fawkes smiling the most when he reflected on the weekend after training hours at Calder on Monday.

Connie and Michael, who made auspicious debuts at 2 and 3, arrived in New York on June 8 to begin preparations for the Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes on June 26.

Trained in Kentucky by Ken McPeek, Connie and Michael shipped into Dominick Schettino's Belmont Park barn and has been galloping daily over the training track. Schettino's assistant is Anthony Bonomo Jr., whose father Anthony Bonomo Sr., heads the racing partnership known as Brooklyn Boyz Stables.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Since winning the New York Handicap in 2006 with Noble Stella, trainer Roger Attfield has only sent three horses down to Belmont Park from his Canadian base.

Saturday, Attfield will have two of the seven runners entered in the $150,000 New York Breeders' Cup Stakes, a 1 1/4-mile turf race now run under allowance conditions. Attfield will be represented by Lady Shakespeare and Ave, both of whom are coming off solid efforts in their most recent starts.

When owner-trainer Joe Faulkner's Porters Court arrived at Thistledown this spring, he was lugging a 13-race losing streak with him. That ended in his first start here when the Canadian-bred gelding won on June 2 at odds of 105-1, paying $213.80 for a $2 wager.

When Porters Court returned to the races here Tuesday, he again received little respect from the bettors and was sent off at 30-1. He won again, paying $63.80. A $2 parlay on the Rodney Dangerfield of Thistledown would have returned $6,820. Lyndon Hannigan rode Porters Court to both of his victories.

A Snowy Cartel is the most accomplished of the 109 juveniles set to run in Friday night's trials for the Grade 1, $346,700-estimated Sam Houston Futurity for Quarter Horses. She goes in the 12th race, which is the last of the 11 trials being run on a program that starts at 7 p.m. Central. Each trial race will be 350 yards, which is the distance of the Sam Houston Futurity. The finale is July 2.

A celebration of the life of Ray Koenig will be held Saturday at River Downs in the tent at the end of the grandstand. Koenig, a popular horse owner and breeder who also owned the printing business that has serviced River Downs for many years, died April 15. Koenig was often seen in the River Downs press box, some days watching his horses run and on other days just playing the ponies.

Originally from Chicago, the Koeing's moved to Cincinnati and started his printing business. Koenig raised four daughters, Lisa, Marcia, Paula, and Susan, with his wife of 53 years, Doris.

Tom McCarthy and his one-horse stable, General Quarters, will show up at Arlington Park sooner rather than later, if all goes well in the next three weeks or so. McCarthy, who owns and trains General Quarters, has long been pointing the 4-year-old to the Arlington Million, and General Quarters will prep for the Million in the Arlington Handicap on July 17, McCarthy said Monday evening.

On June 7, Prairie Meadows increased purses in overnight races for the remainder of the meet. Claiming races were increased $1,500, and allowances races were increased $2,500.

Racing secretary Dan Doocy said the purse increase was necessary to prevent carrying over an underpayment at the end of the meet. The purse increase seems to have caused increased activity at the claims box. There have been 13 claims since the increase over last six racing days, compared with 47 claims from the 28 racing days before the increase.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Each year in Chicago there are 18 stakes races worth $100,000 each for Illinois-breds, with an Illinois Day at Hawthorne's spring and fall meets, and one at Arlington in June.

Suffice it to say that success in this generous statebred stakes program is the province of the few.

If you look at the jockey/trainer standings at Presque Isle Downs you might think you are at Tampa Bay Downs north. The trainer standings show Jamie Ness with 26 wins and a huge lead. Ness tied with Kathleen O'Connell for the training title at Tampa Bay this spring with 51 wins. Dale Bennett was third in the Tampa Bay standings and going into Wednesday's card was second to Ness with nine victories.