ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The featured ninth race on Friday at Arlington Park is a turf race. What makes it especially difficult to decipher is the lack of turf horses.

Eleven were entered in the main body of this third-level allowance race also open to $62,500 claimers - Ripe Tomato will run only on the main track, and can contend if she does. And those 11 have combined to win an underwhelming five grass races. A mare named Goldinthepocket is the established turf star - she's managed to win a whopping two grass races from seven tries.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Going into the 2008 B.C. Cup, Against the Sky was just your average claiming horse. The last thing in trainer Craig MacPherson's mind was the idea of running her in the B.C. Cup Distaff. Instead, MacPherson entered her against colts and geldings in the B.C. Cup Starter, which is restricted to horses that had started for an $8,000 claiming price in the past two years. Against the Sky scored an easy 4 1/4-length win over Chivago, and then proceeded to run off three more wins, culminating with a score in the Grade 3 Ballerina.

Illegal Memories, a multiple Grade 1-winning Quarter Horse, will make his first start in two months Friday night in the $50,000 Ancira Ford Classic at Sam Houston Race Park. The 400-yard race is one of four stakes on the card, all restricted to Quarter Horses bred in Texas. Purses for the races total $165,000.

The venerable H.M. Johnson will return to his duties as stall superintendent as early as Sunday. Humie, as he is known throughout River Downs, has been away two weeks after undergoing a battery of tests to determine the cause of abdominal pain.

Johnson had a temporary blockage in his intestine but has been given a clean bill of health by his doctors.

A stall superintendent is responsible for allocating stalls. He also must make room for ship-ins and keep track of them as well as manage dorm rooms.

Freddie Mata broke through a three-way tie to take command of the jockeys' race at Pinnacle Race Course when he posted a riding triple Tuesday. Mata, Ricardo Barrios, and Jeffrey Skerrett had started the day tied with 29 wins.

Mata opened the card winning aboard two favorites.

Martin Brown, 64, continues to be the hardest-working man in the horse business at Evangeline Downs. The veteran rider came out of retirement several years ago and is showing no signs of slowing down. He still works diligently during training hours, and while not a force in the upper echelon of the rider standings, he has still booted home nine winners at the current meeting.

The live racing season in Nebraska reaches its final extended stop Friday night as Agricultural Park at Columbus opens for a 23-day meet that runs through Labor Day, Sept. 7.

Racing will be conducted on a Friday-Sunday basis this year, with a post time of 6:30 p.m. Central on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays and Labor Day. A Thursday evening card will be offered Aug. 20. The final stop on the state circuit, Horsemen's Atokad Downs, will conduct a four-day meet following Labor Day weekend.

The wait is nearly over for members of the Stellar Teller Racing Partnership, a group of Canterbury Park mutuel tellers who formed a breed-to-race partnership in May 2005 after several tellers had discussed the possibility of buying a racehorse together. The 12-member partnership has been guided by Jolene Danner, who works in the Canterbury Park information booth when not caring for a number of horses at a nearby farm.

Rock Hard Candy is now 4 for 5 at the Presque Isle meet after defeating a field of starter allowance fillies and mares Sunday. Trained by 29-year-old Jevon Crumley, Rock Hard Candy has finished first or second in all eight starts she has made for him.

AUBURN, Wash. - Tim McCanna leads the Emerald Downs trainer standings with 41 wins through 51 racing dates, but has yet to saddle a stakes winner at the meeting. That could change Sunday, when the fast-improving Way Too Much tackles a strong field in the $50,000 Mount Rainier Handicap at nine furlongs.