AUBURN, Wash. - Longacres Mile week begins Thursday with an eight-race card featuring an evenly-matched field of six 3-year-olds going a mile for $17,500 claiming prices.

AUBURN, Wash. - There are few things more exciting for an owner or a trainer than to have a 2-year-old win first time out. That goes double if the debut win comes in a stakes, and the excitement goes off the charts if the margin of victory threatens to go into double-digit lengths and the time is a stakes record.

Another daylong deluge Monday was the perfect backdrop for the final card of the first half of Saratoga's 140th meet.

With rain the theme of the first 18 days of racing, Saratoga has experienced double-digit declines in attendance, ontrack handle, and all-sources handle compared with this point of last year's record-setting meet.

John Sabini, until recently a state senator from the New York City borough of Queens, has taken over the top spot on the New York State Racing and Wagering Board after a confirmation hearing in the state senate on Friday.

Sabini, who replaces Dan Hogan as chairman of the wagering board, stepped down from his senate seat on Friday so that the Democratic Party in Queens could find another candidate for what is expected to be a tough election battle this fall. He was nominated as chairman of the wagering board by Gov. David Paterson, and will serve a six-year term.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Mother Nature postponed Curlin's first-ever visit to Saratoga's main track on Monday, but the reigning Horse of the Year still got in an important workout that keeps him on schedule for the Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward Stakes here on Aug. 30.

Working over a sloppy Oklahoma training track in the second set after the first renovation break - approximately 8 a.m. - Curlin drilled six furlongs in 1:14.62, going in company with the 4-year-old Hawaii Calls, who finished a neck in front at the wire.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Larry Jones hasn't had the time to plot a next race for Maren's Meadow following her front-running victory last Saturday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Monmouth Oaks.

Jones, based at Delaware Park, has his hands full running horses throughout the region, including Kentucky Oaks winner Proud Spell, who is heading to Saratoga for the Grade 1 Alabama on Saturday.

When the dust settles after next weekend, Jones hopes to catch his breath and map out a schedule for his two talented 3-year-old fillies.

DEL MAR, Calif. - When the Best Pal Stakes was made official on Sunday at Del Mar following a lengthy inquiry, it was all over but for the shouting. And the fighting.

Boos emanated from the stands from those who disagreed that Kelly Leak should have been disqualified from victory in favor of Azul Leon, and jockey Victor Espinoza, the rider of Kelly Leak, got into a scrap with Rafael Bejarano, the rider of Azul Leon, in the jockeys' room after the race.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - One hears a lot of talk about the supposed superiority of European turf horses to their U.S.-based counterparts - and boy, was that stark fact ever on display Saturday at Arlington.

For the first time in 26 editions of the Arlington Million, European shippers swept the top three placings in the race, with Spirit One, an unheralded French horse, holding off a desperate late bid from heavily favored Archipenko to win. Mount Nelson, second choice in the race, finished third, with Silverfoot leading the American contingent in fourth.

Trainer John Martin was caught by surprise Sunday when he won two races at the Bay Meadows Fair in San Mateo, Calif., and found out he was just one away from career win No. 1,000.

Martin won the third race with Avada Kedava ($10) and the fifth with Shes a Lucky Wager ($5.40).

If you counted his victories with Appaloosas and Quarter Horses, Martin passed 1,000 wins long ago.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Jockey Chantal Sutherland and trainer Mac Benson may have been born a few decades apart, but the two had plenty in common at Woodbine last weekend.

Sutherland, 32, and Benson, 78, teamed up to win two stakes here as Sugar Bay captured Saturday's $182,845 Duchess and Ice Bear took Sunday's $100,400 With Approval.

Both wins were accomplished by a nose and were part of an incredible weekend in which Sutherland recorded six victories, with four coming by the same scant margin.

"This little girl seems to be doing everything right," said Benson.