LOUISVILLE, Ky. - If being "due" actually applies in horse racing, then jockey John McKee and trainer Jamie Sanders finally got what was coming to them Sunday at Churchill Downs.

McKee has not been winning at anything close to his 2003 and 2004 standards, when his mounts earned more than $6 million each year, while Sanders has struggled mightily this year with a large stable, winning with just five of her first 243 starters.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Rags to Riches, the nation's leading 3-year-old filly and one of the most popular racehorses to run this year, will return to training next month at Hollywood Park, trainer Todd Pletcher said.

But Pletcher said it might be spring before Rags to Riches makes her next start.

"We don't have a firm shipping date but we hope to have her here next month," Pletcher said Sunday, while visiting his Hollywood Park division. "She's coming back. There is no question about it."

STICKNEY, Ill. - Canterbury Park is a summer racetrack with a hard, fast racing surface, while Hawthorne Race Course conducts fall and spring Thoroughbred meets, often racing over a loose, laboring racing surface. But what the two tracks have in common is a traditional dirt surface, and that may be the key factor for Margie Marie in the featured seventh race here Wednesday.

Suffolk Downs posted increases in attendance and ontrack handle on its 2007 meet, although the all-sources average handle declined marginally.

The 100-day stand that ended Saturday saw a 22 percent gain in average attendance, topped by 19,191 Sept. 22 for the return of the Massachusetts Handicap after a two-year hiatus.

Peppers Pride remained undefeated in 13 career starts on Sunday, when she split horses en route to a two-length victory in the $182,460 Fillies and Mares Championship at Zia Park. The six-furlong race was one of 11 stakes for statebreds during the $2 million New Mexico Cup.

ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer O.J. Jauregui had only one regret following North Beach's victory in the $75,000 Miss America Stakes at Golden Gate Fields on Sunday.

Eight were entered in the 1 1/8-mile turf race, but four scratched when the race was switched to the main Tapeta surface because of rain. Jauregui said he thinks North Beach won't get the credit she deserves for beating only three horses.

"I was confident going on turf or dirt," Jauregui said. "When four scratched, people will think it was not as tough a race, but this filly's getting better and better."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - While Monashee lost some of her luster, Like a Gem continued to shine at Woodbine in last Saturday's $207,000 Maple Leaf Stakes.

Like a Gem continued to make up for lost time by earning her first main-track stakes win in the Maple Leaf, a 1 1/4-mile race for fillies and mares.

It was the third consecutive victory within a four-week span for Like a Gem, a homebred 4-year-old owned by Garland Williamson and trained by Danny Vella.

A key scratch that changed the complexion of the race helped stretch-out sprinter Bernie Blue dominate the $125,000 Mountaineer Mile at Mountaineer Race Track on Saturday night.

When the Chicaco-based Tepexpan was withdrawn from the field, along with outsiders Jenkin Jones and Crafty Kid, Bernie Blue ($4.60) was left as the lone speed in a field of five older horses.

Lightly raced Saxet Heights, the winner of a slowly run maiden race in her only previous start, defeated three-time stakes winner We're in the Money by three lengths in the $72,212 fillies division of the Tri-State Futurity on Saturday night at Charles Town.

INGLEWOOD, Calif.-Jockey Garrett Gomez won his 70th stakes of 2007 aboard Hucking Hot in Saturday’s $68,650 Audrey Skirball-Kenis Stakes at Hollywood Park, equaling Jerry Bailey’s 2003 record for most stakes wins in a year.

Hucking Hot ($7.40) rallied between fillies in early stretch before pulling away to win by a length. Lavender Sky finished second, a head in front of Model in the field of six 3-year-old fillies.