Since he won a stakes race while setting a track record in only his third start at 2, Vicarino has been considered special. At 3, he won a stakes in his lone start, and he looks for his first stakes victory as a 4-year-old Friday in the $50,000 Sam J. Whiting Handicap at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, Calif. Vicarino has 3 wins and 3 thirds in 7 starts this year and will likely be a strong favorite in the Whiting.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The injury and subsequent retirement of Heatseeker did not just happen overnight, even though trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and owner William de Burgh initially wanted to believe the filling in his ankle was just an untimely setback last week.

"Horses have trauma on their joints, and their ankles fill up time to time," Hollendorfer explained Tuesday. That includes Heatseeker. "He had little filling in an ankle every now and then."

AUBURN, Wash. - Coming into Sunday's one-mile Tacoma Handicap, Gallon had begun to accumulate a few critics. Though he had been beaten just a head by Fear No Evil in the six-furlong Auburn Stakes and only a neck by Margo's Gift in the 6 1/2-furlong Pepsi-Cola Handicap, some felt he should have won those races. They felt he was in position to win, but hung, or flattened out, at the moment of truth.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The trainer Al Stall won 15 races here at Arlington Park during the 2003 meet - but hardly has been seen in these parts since. Beginning the next year, his summer stable was split between Churchill Downs and Louisiana Downs, with Arlington out of the mix. Stall started just six horses here from 2004 to 2006, and did not have an Arlington runner last year.

But he has one now, and a victory Friday in the $175,000 Stars and Stripes Turf Handicap would catapult Lattice toward the top tier of long-distance grass horses in North America.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Storm Mesa parlayed a stakes win at Lone Star Park in May into a graded score at Prairie Meadows last Friday night, and now she could be headed to Grade 1 company in New York. The Test or Alabama might be the next stop for the filly, who put up a Beyer Speed Figure of 108 in the $100,000 Cinemine at seven furlongs this spring at Lone Star. From there, Storm Mesa won at 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 3, $200,000 Iowa Oaks.

If the third race last Sunday at Louisiana Downs was any indication, the $75,000 Hallowed Dreams Breeders' Cup could end up being a bang-up race. Doyouwanttodance and Steamy Ridge duked it out through the stretch of a five-furlong allowance moved to the main track, and both could run back next in the Hallowed Dreams, a 6 1/2-furlong stakes for fillies and mares on July 19.

In the allowance, Doyouwanttodance came back for a half-length win over Steamy Ridge. For the effort, Doyouwanttodance earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 98.

MIAMI - If the nomination lists are any indication, the 2008 Summit of Speed could be the best in the eight-year history of the event. The Summit of Speed, which features four graded sprint stakes including the Grade 1 Princess Rooney, will be decided at Calder on July 12.

The $400,000 Princess Rooney and Grade 2, $400,000 Smile are Win and You're In races for this year's Breeders' Cup. Purses were cut by $300,000 for the Summit of Speed shortly after the meet began because of the lack of a purse contract between local horsemen and track management.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Jiggs Coz, the second choice in a four-horse field, upset the 2-5 favorite, True Metropolitan, in Tuesday's $206,000 Dominion Day Stakes at Woodbine.

Jiggs Coz inherited an easy lead in the 1 1/4-mile event, and set soft fractions of 24.76 seconds, 50.07, and 1:14.50 under David Clark.

True Metropolitan was rated early by Jim McAleney, before assuming a stalking position on the outside. Jiggs Coz began to pull away early in the stretch and prevailed by 2 3/4 lengths in a time of 2:04.99.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - John Shirreffs had been warned.

Scouting prospects at the massive Keeneland September yearling sale in 2005, Shirreffs was tipped by bloodstock agent David Ingordo on a promising Street Cry filly.

"I found a really nice, very athletic filly, looks like a colt with a real regal look," Ingordo told Shirreffs.

There was a catch. The filly, Hip No. 703, was battling a skin disease, Ingordo told the trainer. When Shirreffs saw the filly himself, her condition took him aback.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The “Woodbine Live!” project, to be located here on racetrack property, could benefit from multimillion-dollar tax breaks under the city of Toronto’s community improvement program.

A news release issued Monday by the city of Toronto said the city’s Economic Development Committee will meet next Tuesday and will consider a city council report recommending that Woodbine receive financial incentives that come in the form of tax breaks.