ELMONT, N.Y. - One final week at Belmont Park, and then it's on to Saratoga.

Before they shut the doors here, Belmont has two final stakes on tap: the Grade 1, $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies next Saturday and the $100,000 Evan Shipman Handicap for New York-breds on closing day, July 20.

The field for the CCA Oaks could be small, now that Godolphin Stable has targeted two Grade 1 winners for the 1 1/4-mile race: Music Note and Little Belle.

Both will be using the CCA Oaks as a prep for the Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga on Aug. 16.

FORT ERIE, Ontario - Seven years ago, trainer Jim Bond checked into town for the Prince of Wales with Wild Years, who had generated a wave of hype after winning his maiden by 22-plus lengths at Belmont.

Wild Years was sent off as the 6-5 favorite despite the presence of Dancethruthedawn and Win City, the first and second finishers in Woodbine's Queen's Plate.

Win City turned the tables and won in the Prince of Wales, with Dancethruthedawn a game second in a field of six while Wild Years finished "absolutely."

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - While remaining the only Swedish, former amateur boxer, female rider on the Chicago circuit (as far as we know), Inez Karlsson did something else of note on Thursday at Arlington Park: She won four times on a nine-race card.

FORT ERIE, Ontario – An intriguing renewal of the Prince of Wales Stakes is on tap here Sunday, but there also will be plenty of interest in two $50,000 stakes on the undercard.

The Daryl Wells Sr. Memorial and the Ernie Samuel Memorial, for fillies and mares, both are restricted to Canadian-breds and are scheduled for five furlongs of turf.

In the Daryl Wells Sr., five of the six runners have won over $200,000, leaving the outside runner Zarroc as the only pauper ($45,200) in the race.

A pair of undefeated 2-year-old fillies, I Got Lucky and Illusive Crystals, will face off in the $25,000 CTBA Lassie Stakes. Each filly has made two starts, and they figure to dominate the betting in the six-furlong affair. They'll face seven other Colorado-bred runners in the CTBA Lassie, which is carded as the seventh race.

A full field of 10 2-year-olds will try six furlongs for the first time in the $25,000 Capitol City Futurity, the closing day feature at the Lincoln State Fair.

Three of the four supplemental nominations have entered the race with Sakakawea the likely favorite in this juvenile guessing game.

On sheer numbers alone, trainer Tim Hamm has a nearly 50/50 chance of winning the $50,000 Hoover Stakes at River Downs on Sunday, as he conditions four of the nine Ohio-bred 2-year-olds entered in the 5 1/2-furlong stakes.

Holy Harem seems best suited to give Hamm his sixth Hoover win in the last 10 years. Holy Harem comes off a June 25 maiden victory gainst open company at Presque Isle Downs.

"She has run the fastest 2-year-old race of the Presque Isle meet so far," said Hamm.

Rodney Prescott will ride Holy Harem, the likely favorite.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Belmont Park announced Friday that admission and general parking will be free Saturday afternoon when 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin makes his turf debut in the Grade 1, $500,000 Man o' War Stakes.

Curlin, who arrived in New York from Kentucky on Thursday, got reacquainted with the Belmont paddock Friday as trainer Steve Asmussen brought the 4-year-old over for schooling with the first-race horses.

Best Westerner takes on five foes, including the three who finished directly behind him in the Harry Jeffrey Stakes on June 21, in the $50,000 Derby Trial going 1 1/16 miles at Assiniboia Downs on Sunday.

Best Westerner should be a much heavier favorite than he was in the Harry Jeffrey, when he went off at 7-5 and wired the field for a six-length score.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – El Sinaloense figures to be a very short price in the $50,000 Ladnesian Stakes for 2-year-olds at Hastings on Sunday. The six-furlong feature drew a field of six-horses and goes as the eighth race.

Part of the reason El Sinaloense will be the odds-on favorite is that he has shown a lot of ability in his two starts. The other thing in his favor is that he is the only horse in the field who has actually started.