Superior Storm, the reigning Louisiana-bred horse of the year, will be freshened after her blood work was off following her head win in last weekend's $100,000 Louisiana Cup Distaff.

Superior Storm tied up a week before the Louisiana Downs race and missed a scheduled work. But when her enzyme count came back to normal a few days prior to the Distaff, she was a go for the race. This past week, however, more blood work was done and Superior Storm's enzyme count came back quite high, said her trainer, Rick Jackson. An elevated count can cause an animal's muscles to tie up.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Is another Linda Rice superfecta in the offing in Sunday's $70,000 Finney Stakes at Saratoga?

On Aug. 18, 2008, Rice sent out the first four finishers in the Mechanicville Stakes for New York-breds at Saratoga. Sunday, Rice has four of the 12 horses entered in the $70,000 Finney Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong turf stakes for fillies and mares.

"Oh boy, that crazy Linda Rice, she's got four in that darn race," Rice said, knowing the nature of a reporter's visit Friday morning.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Sunday's Canterbury card is expected to draw a large crowd - not only because two stakes are carded but because it is Extreme Day.

In addition to camel and ostrich races, the Extreme Day festivities include a 3 1/2-furlong race that includes stakes winners Miss Missile and Celluloid Hero; a $5,000 claimer for 7-year-olds and up; a turf race for horses that have never won on the turf; and a 100-yard Quarter Horse race. The card concludes with a 2 1/16-mile event for $10,000 claimers.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Hastings management was disappointed that just one horse shipped up from Emerald Downs for last Monday's inaugural Pacific Challenge.

Great Addiction, who ran out of real estate when a closing third in Fort Erie's six-furlong Don Valliere Memorial Cup on July 26, gets to stretch his legs there for Sunday's 1 1/16-mile Fan's Cup and should be along in time.

The $28,750 Fan's Cup, for 3-year-olds and up who have started at least twice at the current Fort Erie meeting, attracted a field of eight.

Great Addiction, a 7-year-old gelding trained by Armand Concessi, has captured a pair of 1 1/16-mile open allowance races at Fort Erie this year on fast and muddy tracks.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Jockey Garrett Gomez's top horse in 2009 has been the 4-year-old filly Life Is Sweet, the winner of three stakes at Santa Anita earlier this year. She could be the filly that pulls the upset of the summer in Sunday's $300,000 Clement Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar.

For the second time this year, Life Is Sweet faces undefeated stablemate Zenyatta in a major stakes. Back in May, Zenyatta easily beat Life Is Sweet by 1 3/4 lengths when they were first and second in the Grade 2 Milady Handicap at Hollywood Park.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Nearly five years to the day after his career began, Commentator makes the 24th - and perhaps final - start of his magnificent career in Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga. A victory would put him in rarefied company along with five-time Horse of the Year Kelso (1961, 63, 65) and the champion Discovery (1934-36) as the only three-time winners of this prestigious handicap race.

At 8 years old, Commentator would join Kelso as the oldest horse to win the Whitney, a race being run for the 82nd time on Saturday.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - If Giant Oak runs back to his Arlington Classic win, he could be the right horse. If Black Bear Island proves half as dominant as European-based winners of the race the last two years, he might be the one. If Take The Points continues building on his third-place finish in the Virginia Derby, maybe the race is his.

If, if, and more if's - that's the feel of the Grade 1, $500,000 Secretariat Stakes. The race sits at the front of a three-race, all-Grade 1, $300,000 guaranteed pick three, and may be a spread for many bettors.

Anyone looking for a repeat of the one-two-three European finish in last year's Arlington Million last year should go shopping elsewhere. While two of the three foreign invaders have legitimate claims in this year's Million, Gio Ponti need only run back to the form that has won him three consecutive Grade 1 races to land this year's edition.

But winning four races at the highest level is exceedingly difficult. If there is anything capable of beating the Christophe Clement-trained son of Tale of the Cat, it could be either Gloria de Campeao or Cima de Triomphe.

Mixed Up captures Smithwick

By David Grening

Mixed Up, who won the A.P. Smithwick in 2007 but missed the race last year because of an ankle injury, wore down the pacesetting Preemptive Strike in the final strides to win Thursday's Grade 1, $102,723 A.P. Smithwick by a half-length. It was 1 3/4 lengths back to Planets Aligned.

Mixed Up joined Hirapour as the only 10-year-olds to win this race. Hirapour won it when it was a Grade 2.