MIAMI - Sunday will be the last chance for horseplayers to "get the Christmas money," as the racetrack adage goes. Unfortunately, making any real Christmas swag in the featured 11th race at Calder figures to take a significant investment with Send Me an Angel likely to be very difficult to beat as the odds-on favorite in the $25,000 optional claiming sprint for fillies and mares.

MIAMI - Trainer David Kassen won his first stakes race at Calder in 1984, when he took a division of the W. L. McKnight Handicap with Jack Slade. Twenty-two years later, he returns looking for his second Calder stakes win when he sends out the promising filly Lisa M in the Tropical Park Oaks on Jan. 1.

CHICAGO - You know it is getting late in the Chicago racing season when you can make a peace sign with your index and middle fingers and simultaneously show how many horses posted timed workouts on a wet, dreary Thursday morning at Hawthorne Race Course. Tommy G breezed three furlongs, Donnie O went five-eighths - a full crew of sanctioned clockers was not required for this exercise.

MIAMI - Class or current form? That will be the decision bettors will have to make when assessing the chances of Cassydora against her nine rivals in Saturday's $26,500 allowance feature at Calder.

Cassydora has not started since she finished 11th in Woodbine's Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes over a yielding course, her North American debut, in October of 2005. Before that outing she had won a listed stakes and was Group 1 stakes-placed in her native England. A daughter of Darshaan, she will make her U.S. bow under second-level optional claiming and allowance conditions on Saturday.

NEW ORLEANS - When a well-bred colt injures himself the owners always have to weigh his value at stud against his potential on the track. It's a tricky equation, especially if there's a chance to get a lightly raced animal some black type to enhance his reputation. Big Top Cat will let his connections know which way he's going Saturday in the $75,000 Bonapaw Stakes at Fair Grounds.

The 21-day fall meet at Churchill Downs was the stage for innumerable key races. Even beyond the Breeders' Cup championships and major events such as the Clark Handicap and Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, the meet yielded races that could very well prove to be springboards to greater things.

Fair Grounds canceled its card Thursday because of unsafe track conditions.

The track's president, Randy Soth, and racing officials met with the jockeys and agreed to cancel after heavy rains over the previous 12 hours inundated the racing surface.

Flooding occured throughout New Orleans after six inches of rain fell, and a flash-flood warning was issued through Friday morning.

Bettors who hammered Yolanda B. Too to 3-5 on the substantial class drop from Grade 1 to Maryland-bred company got burned when the 4-year-old filly finished second in the Maryland Million Distaff in October.

Despite her failure, Yolanda B. Too will likely be a short price again under similar circumstances when she faces 11 other fillies and mares in Saturday's restricted $50,000 Squan Song Stakes at Laurel Park.

NEW ORLEANS - Mystery Classic will attempt to extend his six-race winning streak Saturday in the $75,000 Bonapaw Stakes, the second of three holiday sprint stakes scheduled for Fair Grounds this weekend. The track carded the $75,000 Esplanade Stakes on Friday and will run the $75,000 Sugar Bowl on Sunday.

Peppers Pride has dominated the New Mexico-bred filly ranks since she began her career in July 2005, winning all six of her starts, including four stakes. She figures to be the overwhelming favorite in Saturday's $125,000 La Coneja Handicap at Sunland Park, a 5 1/2-furlong race for New Mexico-bred 3-year-old fillies that has lured a full field of 12.