VANCOUVER, British Columbia – El Sinaloense will be heavily favored to win his fourth straight stakes race in the $60,000 CTHS Sales Stakes at Hastings on Sunday. The 6 1/2-furlong feature for Canadian-bred 2-year-old colts and geldings drew five horses, but El Sinaloense is in a class by himself. To be eligible to the race a horse must have gone through a Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society sale.

A gelding by Mud Route, El Sinaloense was purchased for $9,500 out of the 2007 sale by Juan Olmos, who is also the trainer of the talented gelding.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sunday's Woodbine Mile will not be the only stage for a clash here between New York trainers Rick Dutrow and Bobby Frankel.

But while Kip Deville, trained by Dutrow, and Ventura, trained by Frankel, will be the principal players in the Woodbine Mile the situation will be different in the Grade 1 Northern Dancer.

Dutrow will send out Frost Giant, who is the 6-1 third choice for the $750,000 Northern Dancer, a 1 1/2-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and upward which attracted a field of 10.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - If Big Brown does indeed run in the Sept. 13 Monmouth Stakes, as expected, the $200,000 purse jumps to $500,000, a big reason why the race closed Wednesday with 35 nominations. But even with that kind of money on the line there are lots of alternatives for area turf horses, which makes it difficult to zero in on the probable field.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Midshipman and Coronet of a Baron, who finished a nose apart in a thrilling Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity on Wednesday's closing day, were already safely tucked into their new stalls at Santa Anita on Thursday morning and could face one another twice more in the next seven weeks there, in the Norfolk Stakes on Sept. 28 and then the Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Oct. 25.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Kip Deville, winner of last year's Breeders' Cup Mile, will be the 124-pound highweight and has been made the 6-5 choice for Sunday's 12th running of the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile.

A field of eight was announced for the Woodbine Mile, a turf race for 3-year-olds and upward that offers a purse of $1 million, at the ceremonial draw in the trackside tent here Thursday.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Owing to the economy in general and malaise in the tourist industry in the San Diego area specifically, Del Mar officials before the meet expected a drop in business this year, and they were right. But the overall numbers were still encouraging, with the track recording its sixth-highest handle in history, perhaps an indication that bettors were more willing to embrace a Polytrack surface that was far more consistent this year than during its inaugural season of 2007.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The fillies division of the $60,000 CTHS Sales Stakes sets the scene for the annual yearling and mixed sale that will be held by the British Columbia division of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society this Tuesday. The 6 1/2-furlong feature for 2-year-old fillies attracted six horses, and it appears to be a wide-open event.

None of the horses entered has won at the distance, and four of the six horses are maidens.

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan – Saturday’s $25,000 Saskatchewan Derby at Marquis Downs takes on a markedly different feel this year as seven ship-ins arrive to do battle with one local hopeful in what amounts to the most competitive derby field in recent years.

EDMONTON, Alberta – True Metropolitan seeks his third straight Speed to Spare crown at Northlands Park on Saturday and is certain to be sent postward as the overwhelming favorite. The 63rd running of the Speed to Spare, a 1 3/8-mile race worth $100,000, attracted just four older horses.

The reigning Horse of the Year, Curlin, will make his next start in the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Sept. 27, his majority owner, Jess Jackson, announced on Thursday.

A win in the Jockey Club - a race Curlin won last year - would enable him to surpass Cigar and become Thoroughbred racing's all-time leading money earner. Curlin has earned $9,796,800, just $203,015 behind Cigar's record of $9,999,815.