ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Dead Red may not be the most accomplished horse in Sunday's Woodbine Mile, but he certainly ranks as one of the most interesting.

Dead Red, a 4-year-old gelding trained and partly owned by George Mikhalides, arrived at Woodbine with assistant trainer Hector Cane in the wee hours of Thursday morning following a 28-hour van ride from Florida.

But Dead Red's trip to the Grade 1, $1 million Woodbine Mile has been much stranger in a figurative sense, as he was racing in a $16,000 conditioned claimer when he was claimed at Calder on May 8, 2006.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.–- Buff Bradley has seen enough of Lawyer Ron, and given a choice, he wouldn't mind missing Street Sense.

FORT ERIE, Ontario – Apprentice Melanie Pinto arrived here last weekend for her first ride ever over the Fort Erie dirt surface with a 10-pound "bug" allowance, no whip, and no wins in the record books.

Her experience in race riding was a couple of runs at Woodbine. She had three mounts scheduled at the Fort, two on Sunday and one on Monday, as she moved her first Fort Erie mount, Campari, into the starting gate for race 5 Sunday. Keeping the leader in her sights, she asked for run from the three-path in the stretch, and got her first win.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Owner K.K. Sangara has tried to win the $250,000 British Columbia Derby four times and so far has been unsuccessful. Last year Sangara came close with Ok Nothanksforaskn. Sent off as the favorite, Ok Nothanksforaskn finished a close third to race winner Halo Stevens, who pulled off a shocking upset. This year, Sangara might have the horse that will get him over the top.

Celtic Dreamin, owned by Sangara and trained by Rafael Becerra, looks like a good one, and lately he's developed a running style that wins races at Hastings.

MIAMI - Imawildandcrazyguy, who has toured the country facing the best of his division for most of the year, may find the grass is actually greener back home when he makes his next start over the local turf course in the $100,000 Needles Stakes on Sept. 22.

Trainer Bill Kaplan said he plans to work Imawildandcrazyguy over the turf course, weather permitting, on Monday morning before making a final decision on his star 3-year-old's status for the 1 1/16-mile Needles.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Lookinforthesecret ranks third among U.S. horses in terms of wins during 2007, but he is the best claim so far in the young training career of Jamie Ness.

Claimed by Ness and owner Sukharan Balkrisna out of a winning effort for $12,500 on Jan. 5 at Tampa Bay Downs, Lookinforasecret has won six races since - three of them stakes - while earning close to $165,000. Sunday at Arlington, Lookinforasecret has a good chance to notch his eighth victory of the season in an open allowance race at five furlongs on turf.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Newton John will put his four-race win streak on the line when he faces four older horses in the third leg of the Marathon Series at Hastings on Saturday. Newton John figures to be heavily favored in the 1 1/2-mile feature, which carries a $20,000 purse. To be eligible to the series a horse must have started for an $8,000 claiming price or less in 2006-07.

ERIE, Pa. - Trainer Steve Asmussen holds a strong hand in each of the $175,000 supporting stakes at Presque Isle Downs on Saturday, sending out Super Frolic in the Presque Isle Mile and He's Got Grit in the Karl Boyes Memorial. Carded as the fifth and sixth races, the two stakes will immediately precede the richest race of the meet, the $400,000 Presque Isle Masters.

ERIE, Pa. - Saturday's $400,000 Presque Isle Downs Masters, the highlight of this track's inaugural meet, has developed into a summit of synthetic-track specialists. Six of the eight entrants in the six-furlong event for fillies and mares have been working on synthetic surfaces at Arlington, Hollywood, Turfway, Presque Isle, Woodbine, or the Fair Hill training center, and they will all meet on the Tapeta here Saturday.

The Saturday card also includes two $175,000 stakes, the Presque Isle Mile and the Karl Boyes Memorial.

The field for the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby next week at Louisiana Downs was just starting to take shape on Friday morning, with the highest-profile starter expected to be Grasshopper, runner-up to Street Sense in the Grade 1 Travers. Entries for the Super Derby, the richest race of five stakes to be run here Sept. 22, will be taken on Wednesday.

"I'm hoping for a field of 9 or 10," said Doug Bredar, racing secretary at Louisiana Downs.