The Los Angeles County Fair meeting at Fairplex Park in Pomona from Sept. 5-22 will feature 17 Thoroughbred stakes during its 16-day run, but the track has changed its policy from past years of having a stakes each day.

In an effort to promote the final weekend, Fairplex Park is offering two stakes on Sept. 20, including the $100,000 Pomona Derby, and four stakes on the final Sunday, Sept. 21, including the $125,000 Ralph Hinds Pomona Invitational and $100,000 Las Madrinas Handicap for fillies and mares.

Brownie Points and Seacrettina have more in common than just being two of the most accomplished females residing on the Remington Park backstretch. Both could take on males in separate Labor Day weekend stakes at the Oklahoma City track that opened its meet Thursday.

Brownie Points, a 5-year-old mare who has earned more than $800,000, has been nominated to the $150,000 DeBartolo Memorial Breeders' Cup, a 1 1/8-mile turf race Sept. 1. She also has been made eligible for the $50,000 Ricks Memorial for fillies and mares at a mile on turf the same afternoon at Remington.

DEL MAR, Calif. - One Union won a breathtaking five-horse photo finish in the Wickerr Handicap at Del Mar on July 25, finally delivering a stakes win that had eluded the 5-year-old horse.

If One Union can win Sunday's $400,000 Del Mar Mile on turf, it could be another career-defining performance. The Grade 2 Del Mar Mile is part of the Breeders' Cup Win and You're In program, providing an automatic berth to the Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Oct. 25, subject to entry fees.

The BC Mile is on trainer Richard Mandella's mind, more than he would care to admit.

EDMONTON, Alberta – Brazen Son, champion of his division in Alberta last year following victories in the Edmonton Juvenile and the Sales Stakes, will make his first start of 2008 in Friday’s featured seventh race.

The 6 1/2-furlong allowance for 3-year-olds who have not won a race other than maiden or claiming in 2008 drew an interesting group of eight, but Brazen Son will be tough to beat if he runs back to anything resembling his juvenile form.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Shortly before Wednesday’s post-position draw for the $250,000 King’s Bishop Stakes, trainer Jimmy Jerkens said he’d prefer to be near the inside rather than the outside with his speedy Desert Key. Jerkens got his wish after Desert Key drew the rail for the Grade 1 King’s Bishop, the most important of three graded stakes on Saturday’s Travers Day undercard.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Strait of Mewsina was purchased out of Ireland last year - and sometimes trainer Larry Rivelli wishes he were campaigning the colt on the Emerald Isle.

"If we were in Ireland, I think this horse would've won about five races already," Rivelli said.

The problem for the horse is one of distance, namely the lack of really long distances in American racing. At the first call of the Secretariat Stakes here Aug. 9, Strait of Mewsina trailed pacesetting Tizdejavu by a whopping 17 lengths.

"Story of his life," Rivelli said.

Debbie Kopatz, whose tiny Fox Chapel Farm in North Canton, Ohio, produced graded stakes winner and 2007 Ohio horse of the year King of the Roxy, has been named one of 27 state breeders of the year for 2008 by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. Kopatz will be honored at the TOBA's national awards dinner in Lexington, Ky., on Sept. 6.

"It's quite a thrill for me," said Kopatz. "My farm is a family operation, just me and my husband [Rick] and our son Philip. We only have 11 acres."

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Juveniles will share the spotlight this weekend at Hastings. The $50,000 Lassie Stakes for fillies headlines Saturday's card, and colts and geldings get their turn in the $50,000 New Westminster Stakes on Sunday.

Both races will have very short-priced favorites, and because What R the Odds and El Sinaloense appear to be unbeatable, it looks like both races will have short fields.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - The well-traveled Hystericalady arrived safely at Monmouth Park on Tuesday afternoon.

The 5-year-old mare was accompanied from Golden Gate Fields by Galen May, long-time assistant to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and Hystericalady's usual travel companion. She was comfortably bedded down in Todd Pletcher's New Jersey barn.

Hystericalady is back at Monmouth in search of a second straight win in Sunday's Grade 2, $300,000 Molly Pitcher Stakes at 1 1/16 miles.

With less than two weeks remaining in this year's season at Evangeline Downs, there is still some unfinished business to attend to, not the least of which is the running of the Opelousas and Lafayette stakes next weekend. The two events will go a long way in determining who is best in the always-popular 2-year-old division here.

Two things that will not have to wait until the final week of racing to be determined are the leading rider and trainer honors.