Freddie Mata has taken over the top spot in the 2007 rider standings at Great Lakes Downs. Mata, a native of Mexico, has won 37 races through 30 days of racing, including a riding double for trainer Gerald Bennett on Tuesday.

A season-high 14,107 fans were on hand for Tuesday - the day before the Fourth of July - which featured three $45,000 stakes at Canterbury Park.

Ma Home Cat prevailed by a nose in the Princess Elaine Stakes for Minnesota-bred fillies and mares on the turf. Nishani set the pace in the 1 1/16-mile contest and was just collared by Ma Home Cat on the wire. Blumin Beauty finished third, another neck behind the top pair. Juan Rivera rode Ma Home Cat , who was timed in 1:45 over firm going. Ma Home Cat, a Camelia Casby homebred, is trained by Gary Scherer.

ELMONT, N.Y. - High Finance hadn't been one to carry over his big allowance race wins into graded stakes competition. Until now, that is.

High Finance backed up his fast-time, high speed figure allowance win six weeks ago with a super performance in winning Wednesday's Grade 2, $200,000 Tom Fool Breeders' Cup Handicap by 2 3/4 lengths at Belmont Park.

Awesome Twist, 12 lengths back after the opening half-mile, rallied for second by a half-length over 1-2 favorite Commentator. Rondo, Will He Shine, and Istan completed the order of finish. Saint Anddan scratched.

AUBURN, Wash. - June was a bad month for trainer Aubrey Villyard and his wife, Sue. Aubrey was hospitalized with leukemia June 8, while Sue was left alone to run the couple's medium-sized stable.

Five-time defending national champion trainer Paul Jones, who oversees his operation from Los Alamitos Race Course about 10 months each year, arrived for his annual summer stay at Ruidoso Downs on Monday to see his stable, as usual, primed for qualifying efforts in this week's trials to the Grade 1, $625,000 Rainbow Futurity and Grade 1, $445,000 Rainbow Derby.

The 18 400-yard Rainbow Futurity trials are Friday afternoon and the three 440-yard Rainbow Derby trials will be held Saturday afternoon.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Sharon Barker spent part of her horse career as an endurance rider in 100-mile races. Nowadays, she has one of the quickest 3-year-old fillies on the grounds at Lone Star Park.

Barker co-owns and trains Moneyinmywranglers. A winner of all three of her starts at the meet, the filly is the one to beat Saturday in the $50,000 Valor Farm Stakes. The race will be run over six furlongs, and it is for 3-year-old fillies bred in Texas. In all, there are six restricted stakes worth a cumulative $475,000 here Saturday as part of the annual Stars of Texas Day.

The lineup has been set for the Cajun Jockey Challenge July 13 at Evangeline Downs. The riding competition will cap a daylong celebration of the region's rich heritage among the nation's jockeys, both past and present.

Fresh off a track-record mutuel handle of more than $2.2 million last Saturday night on Louisiana Legends Night - an event that brought together the best Louisiana-bred equine athletes - the focus now will shift to those riders with Louisiana bloodlines.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - If he hasn't already broken the record by then, trainer Steve Asmussen figures to be taking an edge Saturday when a pair of Grade 3 stakes for 2-year-olds are run at Churchill Downs.

Asmussen, who is closing in on the Churchill mark for most winners at a spring meet, has the favorites and multiple entries in both the $150,000 Bashford Manor Stakes and the $100,000 Debutante Stakes here Saturday.

Three rather accomplished Japanese females will attempt to duplicate the 2006 feat of Dance in the Mood by winning the CashCall Mile at Hollywood Park on Friday, but if recent form is to be believed, it is Koiuta who will give local favorite Price Tag the most trouble. (Wait a While was to be scratched due to illness, trainer Todd Pletcher said.) Indeed, a repeat of her May 13 victory in the Victoria Mile, a race won last year by Dance in the Mood, could land Koiuta the $525,000 first prize.

MIAMI - The fastest horse in the East, the fastest horse in the West and the fastest horse in south Florida will all come together Saturday at Calder in the Grade 2, $500,000 Smile Sprint Handicap for the right to be called the fastest horse in the country at the mid-point of the 2007 campaign.