Though his Cool Coal Man won Monday's $71,750 Albert the Great Stakes at Saratoga by 12 3/4 lengths, trainer Nick Zito could not totally celebrate because his other horse in the race, 2008 Belmont Stakes winner Da' Tara, was eased.

Trainer Greg Gilchrist had some good news waiting for him when he returned from Europe on Sunday: Two of his horses, Wild Promises and Victorina, had run one-two in Saturday's $50,000 Luther Burbank at Santa Rosa.

Both runners were coming off long layoffs. Wild Promises had run 10th in the Grade 3 Honey Fox at Gulfstream on March 7 and was coughing badly after the race. Victorina, who had gone to Florida with her stablemate, had broken a splint bone.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - When the plane touched down in the rain in Chicago last Friday, trainer Mary Hartmann had one desire.

"I felt like going home," Hartmann said.

It was too late. Hartmann and Presious Passion had come too far, from Monmouth Park to the Midwest, to turn back.

It was on to the Arlington Million on Saturday, even if the wet course compromised Presious Passion, the two-time defending United Nations champion.

There will be no Ferris wheels, midways, or crafts and animal exhibits, but the fair is coming to Golden Gate Fields.

Golden Gate in Albany hosts its first of two California Authority of Racing Fairs meetings for a two-week run beginning Wednesday. The meeting will be an all-Thoroughbred affair geared to maidens, turf runners, and higher-quality claiming and allowance runners. Eight races are scheduled for weekdays, and nine on weekends.

DEL MAR, Calif. - There is a hammock just outside the stable office at the barn of trainer John Shirreffs, and that's where he was lounging Monday morning, looking far more becalmed than those who witnessed Zenyatta's heart-stopping victory in the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes on Sunday at Del Mar.

"It was a late night," Shirreffs said.

Jockey Rickey Walcott extended his lead in the jockey standings at Northlands Park with a remarkable performance over the weekend, winning 12 races from 17 mounts.

On Saturday Walcott won six races in a row, including an upset with I'm the Guy ($10.30) in the $50,000 Westerner Handicap. In the fifth race on Saturday he finished second with Kennington, but was moved up to first when King Kwai was disqualified and placed fourth.

Turfway Park officials announced Monday that its premier fall event, the Kentucky Cup series, has undergone drastic cuts for the 16th running on Sept. 25, with both 2-year-old stakes being eliminated and the purse for the Kentucky Cup Classic being slashed from $350,000 to $200,000.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - The crowd of 15,128 on hand for Extreme Day at Canterbury Park was also witness to a remarkable milestone as jockey Scott Stevens earned his 4,000th career victory with a memorable stakes double in the Brian Barenscheer Juvenile and the John Bullit Stakes.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - As expected, Commentator was retired from racing following his third-place finish in Saturday's . His connections officially announced the 8-year-old gelding's retirement on Sunday.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Chip Woolley has told anyone who would listen how well his Kentucky Derby winner has been doing since he arrived in Saratoga. On Monday, Mine That Bird spoke for himself.

In his first workout over Saratoga's main track, Mine That Bird drilled four furlongs in 48.23 seconds under jockey Jamie Theriot, getting his last quarter in 23.48 seconds. Mine That Bird is preparing for a start in the $1 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 29.

The work was significantly faster than the 50 seconds Woolley was expecting.