AUBURN, Wash. - Most fans expected to see a season-long rivalry in Emerald Downs's 3-year-old colt and gelding division this year, but they assumed it would be between last year's juvenile rivals Gallon and Margo's Gift. As it turns out, it's between Gallon and the surprising Fear No Evil.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Gondola should appreciate the class relief when she drops into a $20,000 claiming race for fillies and mares that have never won two races on Sunday at Hastings. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint attracted seven horses and goes as the seventh race.

EDMONTON, Alberta – Robo Willie, a drawing-off winner of the six-furlong Edmonton Juvenile on July 9, heads a field of eight colts and geldings in the 6 1/2 furlong Birdcatcher at Northlands Park on Sunday.

The $50,000 Birdcatcher failed to attract a single Alberta-bred, thus the $26,000 offered in supplemental bonus money will be carried over to next season.

The Lincoln Handicap in which Peppers Pride was to bid for a record 17th consecutive win has been rescheduled for Aug. 30 at Ruidoso Downs, and it remains one of two races in which she will likely make her next start, said her trainer, Joel Marr. He said her other option is the $50,000 Carlos Salazar Stakes at The Downs at Albuquerque on Aug. 17. Both races are sprints restricted to fillies and mares bred in New Mexico.

"I just have to wait and see how she trains and make a decision," said Marr. "I just really can't say what we're going to do at this point."

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Ferocious Fires was back on the main track, back against statebreds, and as a result back in the winner's circle once again after cruising to a 4 1/4-length victory over Endless Circle in Thursday's $82,900 John Morrissey Stakes at Saratoga.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - On the seventh day of the 2007 Saratoga meet, Bill Mott won two races to move atop the trainers' standings. It was a lead he would never relinquish en route to his ninth Spa title, with a personal-best 27 wins.

On the eighth day of the 2008 Saratoga meet, the Mott-trained 2-year-old Gentleman Jeter finished sixth in a maiden race. It left Mott winless with his first 14 starters of the meet.

Mott couldn't even win a race on his birthday - something he historically does - because his 55th birthday fell last Tuesday, a dark day at Saratoga.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Zappa earned an automatic berth to the $500,000 Breeders' Cup Marathon at Santa Anita on Oct. 25 with his win in Wednesday's $150,000 Cougar II Handicap at Del Mar.

First, co-owner Gary Barber has a more lucrative goal on his mind - the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 24.

Barber said Zappa would be considered for the richest race of the Del Mar meeting after the 6-year-old gelding led throughout the Cougar II Handicap, run at 1 1/2 miles on the Polytrack.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - If Saturday were a regular day, Dean Hayes would be driving a truckload of Darley Stable's finest stallions from a farm in Lexington, Ky., to the Louisville airport on their way to the Southern Hemisphere for the breeding season.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - The Claiming Crown may not deserve an apples-to-apples comparison to the Breeders' Cup, for obvious reasons, but in at least one respect there is striking similarity: the races come at you in rapid-fire succession.

At 2:35 p.m. Central, the Claiming Crown procession will begin in earnest. The first of seven straight Claiming Crown races, the $50,000 Iron Horse, will kick off more than three hours of frantic action, with the anchor event, the $150,000 Jewel, culminating the series as the day's ninth race at 5:43 p.m.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Although East End Tap is coming off a solid second-place finish behind Harlem Rocker in Fort Erie's Prince of Wales, he will be a major question mark in the Breeders' Stakes here at Woodbine on Sunday.

The $500,000 Breeders', a 1 1/2-mile turf race that is the final leg in the Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, attracted a field of 10.

The majority of the entrants have shown acceptable form on grass, but East End Tap has no green in either his race or workout history.