Forty Acres is set to bring his front-running style to the Oklahoma Derby. The $300,000 race at Remington Park on Oct. 21 is the next scheduled start for Forty Acres, who pulled off a wire job in the $100,000 Prelude at Louisiana Downs in August, then set the pace and finished seventh in last month's Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby.

The inaugural 25-day meet at Presque Isle Downs, the Erie, Pa., racetrack offering slots-enriched purses, attracted an average of $585,680 a day in wagering from all sources. Purse distribution, estimated before the meet at $500,000 a day, averaged $432,074. The meet began Sept. 1 and ended on Saturday.

The track was the first to use a Tapeta synthetic surface, which was generally well received by trainers and jockeys, said Debbie Howells, the track's director of racing at Presque Isle Downs.

Buoyed partly by a matchup at Turfway Park between the top two finishers from the Kentucky Derby, a crowd estimated as the largest in the 14-year history of the Kentucky Cup turned out Saturday to watch Hard Spun defeat Street Sense in the signature event in the five-race series, the Kentucky Cup Classic, and wagering increased from the 2006 card.

Turfway does not charge admission and therefore does not have an official turnstile count, but officials said Monday that their estimate was 13,640 on Saturday, exceeding the previous Kentucky Cup high of 11,223 in 2003.

EDMONTON, Alberta - The 11th Alberta Fall Classic Day - with $400,000 up for grabs in seven stakes races restricted to Alberta-breds - started out Saturday with hot favorite Bears Artiste ($3.30) going wire to wire under Desmond Bryan to capture the Sturgeon River for 2-year-old fillies.

FRESNO, Calif. - The 11-day Big Fresno Fair meeting, which opens Wednesday and runs through Oct. 14, includes a pair of $50,000 stakes races for Thoroughbreds, the Harvest Futurity at six furlongs for 2-year-olds on Oct. 12 and the one-mile Bull Dog Stakes on Oct. 14. The purse for the Harvest Futurity has been raised $10,000 from last year.

The fair's racing secretary, Zach Soto, said he has 650 stall requests and expects a full barn area for the meeting.

ELMONT, N.Y. -- With the possible exception of Curlin, the most impressive performance turned in Sunday at Belmont Park was by Fabulous Strike, whose 5 3/4-length romp in the Grade 1 Vosburgh re-established his credentials as a leading contender for the Breeders' Cup Sprint on Oct. 27 at Monmouth Park.

STICKNEY, Ill. - Really, trainer Michele Boyce owed jockey Terry Houghton some kind of payback. Houghton wound up this summer at Canterbury Park when Arlington Park's parent company, Churchill Downs Inc., denied him permission to ride because of an ongoing investigation into alleged suspicious betting patterns at several racetracks. One morning, Houghton drove from Canterbury in the suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul area down to Prairie Meadows in Des Moines, Iowa, to ride a horse for Boyce - only to find upon arrival that the horse had been scratched.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sunday's $151,200 Ontario Derby was billed as a Sovereign Award showdown between Prince of Wales winner Alezzandro and Queen's Plate winner Mike Fox.

However, no one cleared the script with Artie Hot, an unheralded gelding who came flying up the inside to leave the favorites struggling in his wake.

Artie Hot's trainer of record, Nick Gonzalez, was not even present as he was taking care of business with his Fort Erie division while his wife and assistant, Martha, did the honors here at Woodbine.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Nashoba's Key's bandwagon was filling rapidly Sunday, a day after she extended her unbeaten streak to seven in the $400,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting.

Through the morning, trainer Carla Gaines's cell phone rang incessantly with calls from well-wishers, while Nashoba's Key, displaying the bad temperament she is known for, rested in her stall, about 25 feet outside of Gaines's stable office.

"Everybody loves a winner," Gaines said.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Todd Pletcher won't have Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches to run, but he'll still have a pretty strong hand to play in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff on Oct. 27 at Monmouth Park.

That hand was strengthened Sunday when the Pletcher-trained duo of Unbridled Belle and Indian Vale were heads apart while finishing first and second in the Grade 1 $600,000 Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park. It was another 2 1/4 lengths back to 11-10 favorite Ginger Punch in third.

Balance, Mo Cuishle, Miss Shop, and Ice Cool Kitty completed the order of finish.