Now Victory ($64.60) opened an easy lead, rated nicely for jockey Frank Alvarado, and scored an easy victory in the Grade 3, $140,000 Bay Meadows Breeders' Cup Handicap.

Now Victory was never seriously challenged in the about 1 1/8-mile turf race. Jack's Wild, winner of the California Turf Championship, closed well for second but fell two lengths short as Now Victory covered the distance in 1:47.17. Macduff was third, another three-quarters of a length back.

Trainer Dean Pederson got his first graded stakes victory with the win.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Favorites Big Truck and Expect the End won their respective divisions of Sunday's stakes at Belmont Park for New York-breds, but both had to work extremely hard for their victories.

In the $106,300 Bertram F. Bongard for 2-year-old males, Big Truck, trained by Barclay Tagg, rallied past a stubborn Spanky Fischbein inside the sixteenth pole to record a two-length victory as the 1-5 favorite. It was four lengths back to Dazzlng Derek in third.

It's the kind of small problem that any racetrack would love to have, but a problem it is. Turfway Park officials were having trouble Monday scaring up a handful of horses to race against Street Sense and Hard Spun in the signature race of their fall meet, the Kentucky Cup Classic on Saturday.

Randy Wehrman, stakes coordinator at Turfway in Florence, Ky., said Monday afternoon that only Stream Cat and Cat Shaker have been confirmed as opponents for the KC Classic. Entries for the Classic and the other four races in the Kentucky Cup series will be drawn Wednesday at the track.

For a guy who doesn't seem to crave the limelight, John Shirreffs keeps putting himself there by virtue of his training ability. Every year, it seems, Shirreffs comes up with a top-class horse, from Bertrando to Manistique, Hollywood Story to Giacomo. This year, though, he's doing it in triplicate.

Shirreffs heads into the fall of 2007 with his deepest lineup yet. He has three outstanding horses with Breeders' Cup aspirations, and all three are running in BC prep races on Saturday.

POMONA, Calif. - The $121,250 Ralph M. Hinds Handicap was not pretty. Fairplex Park horse-for-course Plug Me In won the richest race of the Los Angeles County Fair race meet on Sunday, by a one length over Courtly Jazz, while odds-on favorite Raise the Bluff struggled home a dull third.

Whirl, who won his maiden for a claiming price of $16,000, picked up his second straight stakes win Sunday in the $151,030 Premier Breeders' Cup at Zia Park. Orphan Brigade finished a neck back in second, while it was another 1 1/4 lengths back in third to Tontine Too.

Whirl ($9.60) dueled on the lead with Tontine Too through an opening quarter in 21.40 seconds. Whirl continued to lead the field through a half-mile in 43.40, then held off a bid from Orphan Brigade, who won this race last year by a neck. Whirl completed the six furlongs in 1:09.20.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Chicago shipper Cloudy's Knight ($8.90) became a contender for next month's Grade 1 Canadian International with a determined score in Sunday's Grade 2, $302,000 Sky Classic Stakes at Woodbine.

Cloudy's Knight tracked the leaders on the outside in the 1 3/8-mile grass race, and then wore down Sterwins in the final furlong to win by a length. Windward Islands rallied from last in the 10-horse field to end up third, while favored Revved Up finished sixth.

Three 's a Crowd ($32.40), responding to a change of riders, upset Saturday night's $51,500 Robert Hilton Memorial Stakes at Charles Town.

The Hilton is the last local prep for horses pointing to the $100,000 Onion Juice and the $500,000 West Virginia Breeders Classic on Oct. 20.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Though Saturday's pick six at Belmont Park was essentially a pick five, there were no winning tickets sold on the exotic wager, creating a two-day carryover of $223,832 entering Sunday's card.

Any Given Saturday ($2.30) was the universal single on pick six tickets, but no tickets could come up with the four double-digit winners that included Dontess ($47), Be Bullish ($19.80), Codeword ($15) and Hammock ($12.60). The other winner in the sequence was Jazzy ($7.80).

There were five winning consolation tickets (5 of 6) that each returned $2,075.

It was a battle of sisters in the First Approach Stakes at Presque Isle Downs Friday night. In the end, it was the younger sister, Who's Happy, who prevailed by two lengths over her half-sister and heavy favorite, Raging Rapids.

The First Approach was one of five $90,000 stakes for Pennsylvania-breds run Friday at the Erie, Pa., racetrack.

The 3-year-old Who's Happy, ridden by Victor Molina and trained by Tim Woolley, returned $7 to win, and the sibling exacta returned $14.60. The pacesetter She's Fancy Free was third. The final time for the 1 1/16 miles was 1:46.33.