Royal Oath, who was making just his second start in North America, wore down a stubborn Ice Bear to capture the $309,400 King Edward Gold Cup by a half-length over 1 1/8 miles of yielding going at Woodbine.

Ridden by Patrick Husbands and trained by Mark Casse, Royal Oath settled in sixth place and was behind horses early but moved up to engage Ice Bear about three-sixteenths of a mile out and prevailed while bumping with that rival through a long drive.

Ice Bear held for second, a half-length before third-place finisher Seaside Retreat, who also hails from the Casse barn.

Eternal Star edged Xchanger by a nose Saturday to win the $200,000 Donald Levine Memorial Handicap in a track-record performance at Philadelphia Park.

The time of 1:20.53 for the seven furlongs lowered the mark of 1:20.61 set by Flaming Bridle in 1999.

Eternal Star ($8.20), an emerging 4-year-old trained by Michael Trombetta and ridden by Julien Pimentel, earned his fourth win in his last five races. This was by far the biggest purse, and the deepest field, the colt had tackled.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Mike Chambers isn't quite sure what to expect when Lord Avalon takes on the top older stakes horses at Hastings in the Grade 3, $100,000 Lieutenant Governors on Tuesday.

Lord Avalon has won 3 of his 4 career starts, but all of his wins have been in conditional races; in the Lieutenant Governors, he'll be facing proven horses like multiple graded-stakes winner Spaghetti Mouse.

ALTOONA, Iowa - Storm Mesa extended her winning streak to four in a row as she led every step of the way to win the Grade 3, $250,000 Iowa Oaks on Friday night at Prairie Meadows.

Storm Mesa went to her knees at the start but quickly recovered and shot to the front. After shaking of Rasierra at the quarter pole, she dug in and won by a length over a fast-closing Sky Mom. She paid $4 to win.

Fort Erie will refund all verifiable wagers placed on its eighth race on June 17, after the track’s television monitors erroneously listed a horse as scratched several minutes before post time. The horse, Golden Quill, 2-1 at the time the error occurred, went on to win the race and pay $11.10. In that same time period, the exacta payoff jumped from a predicted $80 to $132.10.

A Fort Erie press release attributed the incident to “human error” that was “confined to our television broadcast only.”

Hollywood Park has committed to operating through the summer of 2009, and probably the entire year, the track's president, Jack Liebau, told the California Horse Racing Board on Friday during its monthly meeting in Pleasanton, Calif.

"We expect to be allocated our 2009 historic dates," Liebau said after the meeting. "We have committed that we will run the spring-summer meeting, no question, and the fall meeting, if we don't give six months notice to the contrary."

MIAMI - Jockey Ariel Smith knew he was going on a three-day vacation, courtesy of the track stewards, beginning Friday when he reported for work on Thursday morning. And his agent, Kevin Meyocks, gave him a little pep talk just to remind him of the situation.

"Kevin said I better get it together to make up for the lost days," said Smith - who then went out and followed Meyocks's orders by winning four races on Thursday's card.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Kamal Sheena is a general surgeon who went on sabbatical to write a book back in 2000. He ended up training racehorses, and is in the midst of a productive meet at Lone Star Park. Sheena has a four-horse stable led by Gold Wonder, the winner of a high-class allowance in his most recent start who will run next in one of two upcoming turf stakes at Lone Star.

Sheena, 71, said he has just finished writing his book, which he described as a book about medicine that is also an autobiography. He began training horses in 2000, but is not new to racing.

FORT ERIE, Ontario - The drop in revenue at border tracks such as Fort Erie and Windsor got some attention last week in the 80-page report released by the Ontario government's industry review panel.

The report, which assessed the province's horse racing industry, cited the falling U.S. dollar and increased competition due to the proliferation of alternative gambling facilities in the region as reasons for the declines.

AUBURN, Wash. - Margo's Gift and Gallon sit atop the 3-year-old division at Emerald Downs, and trainer Blaine Wright understands that it won't be easy to knock them off. Consequently, Wright has decided two take two shots at the divisional leaders in Sunday's $50,000 Tacoma Handicap at a mile.

Wright will send out both Easy Going Cecil and Javon Carries On in the Tacoma.

"I'll have one on the lead and one coming from off the pace," said the trainer. "That should give me a chance no matter how the race unfolds."