SAN MATEO, Calif. - All signs point to a strong debut by Hoods Up Sunday in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Coming off a five-win day Wednesday, Russell Baze won six races on Thursday's Bay Meadows card.

Baze won the first race with High Resolve ($2.10), second with Tail Spin Topper ($2.40), fourth with Yodelay You're Who ($3.40), fifth with Roses 'n Rainbows (the day's highest-paying winner at $6.40), sixth with Deal the Heat ($3.80), and seventh with Delectable Della ($2.80).

Frank Alvarado won the day's other two races with Sweet Addition ($3.80) in the third and Held Up ($4.60) in the eighth.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The $55,000 Pine Tree Lane Stakes at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting on Saturday arrives at a perfect time for Downthedustyroad. The Breeders' Cup at Monmouth Park next week is a different story.

Unraced since winning the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes last December, Downthedustyroad has been sidelined by a hind leg injury that has kept her sidelined this year. The injury will prevent her from starting in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Monmouth Park next Friday, trainer Bob Baffert said.

STICKNEY, Ill. - Cloudy's Knight is headed north again.

It's actually as much east as north, the 525-mile trip from Hawthorne to Woodbine, and Cloudy's Knight traveled with aplomb last month, winning the Grade 2 Sky Classic over a solid field. But while his journey is the same, Cloudy's Knight - Chicago's best long-distance grass horse - will find tougher competition awaiting him in Sunday's prestigious $2 million Canadian International.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Quijano, a German invader trained by Peter Schiergen, has been made the 3-1 morning-line favorite for Sunday's Grade 1, $2 million Canadian International at Woodbine. A field of 12 was entered at a ceremonial draw Thursday for the 1 1/2-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and upward.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland incurred a fourth serious breakdown during its ninth day of racing this fall when Scorpius was euthanized after shattering the sesamoids in a hind leg during the eighth race Wednesday.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - It's not surprising that owner Ole Nielsen was feeling pretty confident when he came into the paddock with Monashee prior to the running of the Grade 3, $129,048 Ballerina Breeders' Cup at Hastings last Saturday. After all, Monashee was going for her 11th straight stakes win, and after carrying 130 pounds in the Delta Colleen Handicap, giving up to 18 pounds to her rivals, she was on equal terms in the Ballerina, where all four horses packed 123 pounds.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - With so much buildup on Sunday's Canadian International, the E.P. Taylor Stakes perhaps has not been given it's due.

The fact is, however, that Sunday's Grade 1, $1 million E.P. Taylor has drawn a competitive field of 10 fillies and mares, headed by the talented French invader Mrs. Lindsay and including the solid American shippers Safari Queen and Barancella.

That fact is not lost upon trainer Mark Casse, who will be looking to keep the E.P. Taylor trophy here in Canada with Sealy Hill.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Handicappers may have viewed Indian Hawke as a suspicious drop-down when he showed up in a $30,000 claiming race at Saratoga after not racing in four months. But there were four parties interested in taking a $30,000 gamble and each put in a claim for the 4-year-old gelding.

STICKNEY, Ill. - Lyndie Wade, age 16, was galloping horses and dreaming of becoming a jockey last year at Louisiana Downs when another teenager, name of Joe Talamo, began winning races in bunches there.

"He won about 30 races at Shreveport, and I was like, 'Man, I want to be like that kid,'" Wade said.