The Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot for 2-year-olds on Dec. 7 is the richest of 37 stakes worth $4 million scheduled for the Delta Downs meet that opens on Oct. 19. The Vinton, La., track, which is beginning its season about two weeks earlier than last year, will race 93 dates through March 29, 2008.

The Jackpot, at 1 1/16 miles, will be featured on a Friday night card of four stakes worth a cumulative $1.4 million. The second-richest offering on the program will be the $300,000 Delta Princess, a one-mile race for 2-year-old fillies.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Colorful Judgement won last year's With Approval in his first start for trainer Alec Fehr, and will be looking to repeat here Sunday in the $75,000 overnight stakes over 1 1/8 miles of turf.

The With Approval, for Ontario-foaled 3-year-olds and upward, attracted a field of six.

Colorful Judgement, a 7-year-old gelding, was claimed for $60,000 from his owner and breeder, Sam-Son Farm, here July 9, 2006, and provided a quick return on investment for Centennial Farms (Niagara) Inc. in the With Approval.

MIAMI - Had Yonagucci been eligible for the Florida Stallion Stakes, the undefeated and untested 2-year-old filly would have stayed right at home to run in Saturday's $100,000 Desert Vixen Stakes. Instead, Yonagucci boarded a plane on Friday morning for Saratoga, where she'll get a class check next weekend in the Grade 2 Adirondack Stakes.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - An injury to Better Talk Now's left front ankle not only knocked him out of Saturday's Grade 1 Sword Dancer Invitational at Saratoga, but also figures to alter the 8-year-old gelding's fall campaign leading up to the Breeders' Cup.

Trainer Graham Motion had hoped to run Better Talk Now in the Sword Dancer and then the Man o' War at Belmont on Sept. 8, leading up to the Breeders' Cup Turf on Oct. 27. But Better Talk Now will have to walk for as long as two weeks, which won't give him enough training time to make the Man o' War.

AUBURN, Wash. - When last seen, Margo's Gift and Courageous Son were battling head and head down the stretch in the July 21 running of the Premio Esmeralda Stakes at six furlongs. Margo's Gift and rider Ricky Frazier had kept Courageous Son pinned tight along the rail from the start, and things got even tighter when Courageous Son's stablemate Gallon joined the duo from the outside passing the sixteenth pole.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny how quickly things can turn around in the racing game. Wayne Catalano was just cruising along with two wins in the bag on the Thursday card at Arlington Park when, boom, the bottom fell out.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Recent retirements have created opportunities for lesser-known horses in the handicap division. Trainer Grant Forster is hoping Brother Bobby can take advantage with a strong effort in next Saturday's Grade 3, $300,000 Philip H. Iselin Breeders' Cup Stakes at Monmouth Park.

"If they keep dropping off and we're alive and well and doing great, who knows what can happen?" Forster said.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The sight of Funny Cide standing alone on the Saratoga main track with fans packed along the apron from one end to the other and the sound of "Wind Beneath My Wings" blaring from the loudspeakers proved too much for Dave Mahan to take.

It was all part of a retirement party for Funny Cide thrown Friday at Saratoga by the New York Racing Association and the New York Thoroughbred Racing and Breeding program.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Student Council, a stakes winner at Sam Houston Race Park earlier this year, has been purchased privately by Ro Parra and will start in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 19.

Student Council, 5, has won 5 of 20 starts and $252,731. He was previously owned by breeder Will Farish and trained by Neil Howard. Student Council was scratched from Friday's fifth race at Saratoga, an optional claimer. He is scheduled to arrive in California on Tuesday, according to Vladimir Cerin, who will train the horse in California.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - True Metropolitan is back at Hastings after a successful trip to Woodbine where he won the Grade 3 Dominion Day as well as an allowance race that served as a prep for the Dominion Day.

According to trainer Terry Jordan, one of the reasons True Metropolitan is back on the West Coast is the weather.

"It's about 200 degrees in Toronto right now," Jordan said. "The weather here is a lot milder and he's a lot more comfortable in the cooler climate."