DEL MAR, Calif. - The timing of the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 24 works perfectly for the East Coast invader Delosvientos and his owner-trainer Guiseppe Iadisernia.

Delosvientos has not started since winning the Grade 2 Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont Park on Friday, June 6. The day of the week of the race was important. Iadisernia is a devout Seventh-day Adventist who said he does not work, or start horses, on Saturdays. The Pacific Classic's appearance on a Sunday satisfies his religious, and racing, needs.

Oaklawn Park's productive series for 3-year-olds, led by the Grade 2, $1 million Arkansas Derby, will highlight a 31-race stakes schedule worth $4.6 million during the 2009 meet that opens Jan. 16.

The 54-date season runs through April 11, the date of the Arkansas Derby. Past winners of the race include eventual champions Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, and Curlin.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Rock Gold is turning into gold for his connections, and after winning his third straight race in the Thursday feature at Arlington Park, Rock Gold may be headed into stakes competition.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - There isn't much doubt that El Sinaloense will be heavily favored to win the New Westminster Stakes for 2-year-olds at Hastings next Sunday. After all, El Sinaloense has easily won both stakes for 2-year-olds at the meet, and in his win over Almost Time in the Ladnesian Stakes he posted the best Beyer Speed Figure ever recorded by a juvenile at Hastings.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Horse of the meet honors could very well be decided Sunday in the Minnesota Distaff Sprint, one of seven $50,000 Thoroughbred stakes for Minnesota-breds on Minnesota Festival of Champions Day at Canterbury Park.

The Minnesota Distaff Sprint, a six-furlong contest for fillies and mares, will feature a showdown between A. J. Bakes and Bella Notte.

Meadow Vespers, third after a troubled start as the favorite in the recent Wolverine Stakes, will carry high weight of 120 pounds when he looks for redemption in the $50,000 Michigan Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Pinnacle Race Course. The 1 1/16-mile race attracted seven statebred colts and geldings, and it is the seventh of eight races on a card that begins at 4 p.m.

EDMONTON, Alberta – The 47th running of the Westerner, a $50,000 handicap that traditionally attracts the top older horses on this circuit as well as some shippers, drew a field of only four.

Racing secretary Fred Hilts slotted the 1 1/16-mile feature as the fourth race at Northlands Park on Sunday, with Test Boy, winner of the Don Fleming last out, the 121-pound highweight under Rico Walcott. Last year, Sovereign Award winner True Metropolitan won the Westerner.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Regal Isolation will put his good speed on display when he runs in what appears to be a wide-open race for entry-level allowance 3-year-olds at Hastings on Sunday. The 6 1/2-furlong feature goes as the seventh race and it’s hard to throw out any of the seven horses that have been entered.

Brinello, a five-length winner last year, looms the horse to beat in a field of 10 in Sunday’s $50,000 Agassiz Stakes at Assiniboia Downs.

Brinello’s only victory last year was that dominant performance in the one-mile Agassiz, but he rarely turns in a poor effort. In his 11 starts in 2007 and 2008, Brinello has 2 wins and 6 seconds, all against allowance or stakes foes. Brinello won the Manitoba Maturity two years ago.

Red Rocks, the morning-line favorite, will be scratched from Saturday’s Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga after developing filling in a hind ankle, trainer Mark Hennig said Friday.

“I dont want to aggravate it on soft going,” Hennig said.

Red Rocks, the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner, was coming off a victory over reigning Horse of the Year Curlin in the Grade 1 Man o’ War at Belmont July 12. His defection leaves seven in the Sword Dancer, with the morning-line favorite now Better Talk Now, who won the race in 2004.