MIAMI - It will be all 2-year-olds all the time when Calder presents its annual Juvenile Showcase on Saturday. The 13-race card is made up entirely of 2-year-old races, including six stakes, highlighted by the $150,000 Affirmed and Susan's Girl divisions of the Florida Stallion Stakes.

Both the Affirmed and Susan's Girl drew nine entrants, with trainer Jose Pinchin possibly sending out the favorite in each - Big City Man in the Affirmed for males and the undefeated Banga Ridge in the Susan's Girl for females. Both races are at seven furlongs.

Trainer Jerry Hardin has long wanted to try the unbeaten Ahead of Her Time on turf. The opportunity comes Friday at Louisiana Downs. Ahead of Her Time will be seeking her sixth straight win when she starts in the $75,000 Elge Rasberry.

To be run at about a mile, the Rasberry is for 3-year-old fillies bred in Louisiana.

Thistledown has applied to the Ohio Racing Commission for 91 racing days in 2008, far fewer dates than the track will race this year. Thistledown, owned by Magna Entertainment Corp., has cut its dates dramatically in each of the last two years. After racing 187 days in 2005, the track shortened its meet to 156 days in 2006 and then to 136 this year.

This year's Thistledown meet began April 14 and will continue through Nov. 27. They have requested a 2008 meet from April 1 to Sept. 1, with one additional racing day in October.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Trainer Jim DiVito might have come into this Arlington Park season harboring hopes of winning the Arlington Sprint Handicap, and even when stable star Coach Jimi Lee went down with an early-summer injury, DiVito wasn't out of bullets.

With Coach Jimi Lee on the sidelines, the 3-year-old Piratesonthelake has become more than an understudy, and after dead-heating with heavily favored In Summation on Saturday in the Arlington Sprint, Piratesonthelake now is a stakes winner.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Despite a less than satisfying experience in the Whitney, Brass Hat is returning to Saratoga to run in the $500,000 Woodward on Saturday.

Brass Hat set a track record at Churchill Downs on July 8 in his first start back after being sidelined for a year with an injury, but was not a factor in the Whitney on July 28 and finished eighth. Trainer William "Buff" Bradley, who manages the 6-year-old gelding for his father, breeder-owner Fred Bradley, said Brass Hat has convinced him he is ready to try Grade 1 stakes company again.

An analysis of wagering totals during Laurel Park's 10-day meet did not produce any discernible impact from a cut in the takeout to 11.4 percent, and the track will not experiment with takeout cuts in the near future, Laurel's top official said Tuesday.

Santa Anita's newly installed Cushion Track surface will open for training next Tuesday, the track announced Tuesday.

The new synthetic surface was installed following the close of Santa Anita's winter meeting in April. Santa Anita is scheduled to begin racing again with its Oak Tree meeting, which starts Sept. 26.

The track's stables will be able to be occupied beginning Saturday, and the infield training track will be open for training starting Sunday.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Trainer Bobby Frankel is clear across the country in Saratoga, but with an able assistant like Humberto Ascanio overseeing things at Del Mar, it's almost like he's here. Ascanio has worked with Frankel for more than 30 years, and there is total trust between the two men, so much so that Frankel will lean on Ascanio for a final decision as to whether to run the top-class fillies Precious Kitten or Price Tag on Saturday at Del Mar in the Grade 2, $250,000 Palomar Handicap.

The Grade 2, $500,000 Meadowlands Cup tops the $3.4 million stakes schedule at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, N.J., which kicks off a 41-day meet on Labor Day.

The schedule reflects several changes to accommodate sister track Monmouth Park, the host of the Breeders' Cup in October. The most prominent shift involves moving the Grade 3, $250,000 Pegasus Stakes for 3-year-olds from the Meadowlands to Monmouth on Oct. 27 as part of a unique four-day meet that culminates with the Breeders' Cup on Oct.o26-27.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Thoroughbred racing has turned into a completely different game in the last decade for Marsha Naify.

In the late 1990s, the sport was something of an escape, a weekend getaway to watch horses owned by the 505 Farms of her father, Marshall Naify. At the time, Marsha Naify was an executive with her father's theater projection company.