AUBURN, Wash. - If it were up to trainer Sharon Ross, she would be bringing Starbird Road into Sunday's six-furlong Seattle Handicap as an unheralded hopeful.

"I prefer to fly under the radar," she said. "That way there aren't a lot of expectations, and nobody is disappointed."

But Starbird Road's days of flying under the radar are long gone. Starbird Road, owned by Rick Beal, won 5 of his 6 starts last season at Emerald Downs, including three stakes, and set a track record going six furlongs in 1:07.40 in the Chinook Pass Handicap.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Nobody got dirty.

Jockey Eddie Razo had three pairs of goggles strapped to his helmet. The extras, Razo said after winning the first race of the Arlington season on Friday, were there in case the pair he was wearing got smacked by a flying horseshoe during the race. But they weren't going to get dirty.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer D. Wayne Lukas's strategy for Fiery Pursuit was obvious the instant the starting gate opened for Friday's $300,000 Louisville Breeders' Cup Handicap at Churchill Downs: Get to the lead and then hold on for dear life at the end.

The plan worked to perfection. Ridden by Calvin Borel, Fiery Pursuit was hustled to the lead after the break, led throughout, then held on gamely to narrowly withstand a belated rally from Asi Siempre and win by a head. The Grade 2 race for fillies and mares was decided over a sloppy track.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Jockey David Wilson is off to a good start at the meet. He won a couple of races last weekend, including a well-timed ride aboard Stephanson, who upset Ookashada in the colts and geldings division of the CTHS Sales Stakes last Sunday.

Wilson has an excellent chance of winning another stakes race Sunday. He rides Monashee in the Brighouse Belles where she figures to be a heavy favorite.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Steve Asmussen won his fifth $150,000 Kentucky Breeders’ Cup Stakes on Thursday as Rated Fiesty splashed her way to a 4 1/2-length victory in the Grade 3 stakes race for 2-year-olds at Churchill Downs.

Asmussen previously won this race with Posse (2002), Cuvee (2003), Lunarpal (2004) and Datrick (2006). The race was not run in 2005. Rated Fiesty became the seventh filly to win in this race’s 19-year history.

Despite a steady rain that fell throughout the day, a crowd of 20,037 attended the races on Thursday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Thursday’s $111,100 Mamzelle Stakes at Churchill Downs was contested over five furlongs on grass. It was over, however, mere strides from the gate.

The 4-5 favorite Smitty’s Sunshine broke on top and made the lead under no urging from jockey Robby Albarado, and was never threatened. She controlled the pace, setting fractions of 22.56 seconds and 45.14 over a rain-soaked course labeled yielding, and cruised to a 2 1/4-length victory.

CHICAGO - The track surface at Arlington Park might be gray, but the mood is bright.

And that would seem strange, since Arlington suffered through one of its toughest recent seasons in 2006. Handle and attendance dropped markedly, and a rash of breakdowns - which began in May, crested in July, and subsided late in the meet - attracted local and national media attention.

New owners are at the helm of Suffolk Downs as Boston's racetrack starts the 2007 season, the first since the death of longtime executive Bob O'Malley in February.

The 102-day meeting, which runs through Nov. 10, will be the first since real estate developer Richard Fields became the largest shareholder on the Suffolk board through his company, Coastal Development Massachusetts. Fields is also one of the principals of Excelsior Racing, one of the groups bidding to take over the racing franchise in New York.

They'll be living in the present this year at Great Lakes Downs because the past has been gloomy and the future may not exist. The bullring near Muskegon, Mich., enters its ninth and perhaps final season as the home of Thoroughbred racing in Michigan on Saturday.

Track general manager Amy MacNeil remains upbeat even after Magna Entertainment Corp. pulled the plug in January, announcing that it would not seek racing dates for Great Lakes Downs in 2008 after the 2006 meeting lost $1.8 million.

Philadelphia Park-based trainer Ramon Preciado came within a neck of beating Bill Place in the Grade 3 Bay Shore at Aqueduct a month ago. Preciado will try Bill Place again, this time with Cherokee Country, in the $75,000 Francis "Jock" LaBelle Memorial at Delaware Park.

Cherokee Country is cutting back to his best distance, six furlongs, after finishing fourth to the highly regarded Etude in the one-mile Private Terms at Laurel.