Only A.L. "Red" McMurray knows why, of all the possible options, he stopped by the Fair Grounds barn of Josie Carroll in the spring of 2000 to ask if she'd be interested in training a 2-year-old he'd bred across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans in Folsom, La.

Carroll had taken out her trainer's license only six years earlier. She spent most of every season at Woodbine, in Canada, and McMurray was offering her a Louisiana-bred by the obscure sire Rail and out of a mare by the equally obscure sire I'm a Lyre.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mark Casse is in the midst of winding up his best campaign ever here at Woodbine, leading in stakes winners with 11 and in money won with $4.27 million heading into the final week of the meeting.

"The last 30 days or so we've kind of been changing our mode a little bit," said Casse. "We're running some first-time starters, trying to get a race into them before the end of the year. That's very important, when it comes to their development next year."

Jockey Jesse Campbell laid plans to spend the winter at Fair Grounds several months ago, but in scheming the invasion, he probably didn't envision entering the third week of the meet sitting third in the jockey standings. After the dust cleared Sunday, 16-year-old Joe Talamo remained on top the leader-board with 14 wins, followed by Donnie Meche - riding basically first call for leading trainer Scott Blasi - with 11 and Campbell with nine. To ice that sweet start, Campbell won Saturday's Tenacious Handicap aboard Kid Grindstone, who is trained by Campbell's father, Mike.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - One of northern California's top 3-year-old fillies has a tough assignment when she returns to the races Thursday at Bay Meadows.

Press Camp, who won the six-furlong Tiburon Handicap and the one-mile San Ramon at Golden Gate Fields this spring, faces six rivals in a five-furlong, $80,000 optional claimer on turf. The race, her first since she finished second in the Grade 3 Miss Preakness at Pimlico on May 19, will also mark her first start against older rivals and her first start on turf.

Arch Hall ($4.30) captured the 1 1/16-mile Sir Barton Stakes for the third year in a row at Woodbine on Sunday.

Arch Hall trailed the six-horse field of Ontario-sired runners on the backstretch, while racing about three lengths off the leaders. His stablemate, Schooner Bay, and Millfleet dueled through moderate fractions and were joined up front by Executive Choice on the far turn.

My Kitty prevailed in a thrilling stretch drive, outfinishing Laurentide Ice and Visual Candy to win the $70,070 East View Stakes by a head at Aqueduct on Sunday.

Laurentide Ice nosed out Visual Candy for second. American Dream'a, Court and Spark, and Twistaway, the 8-5 favorite, completed the order of finish.

My Kitty's victory completed a weekend sweep of Aqueduct's stakes for her trainer, Gary Contessa, who on Saturday won the Garland of Roses with Magnolia Jackson and the Coyote Lakes with Successful Affair.

The experiment of trying the turf stakes winner Foxysox on the main track in Sunday's $150,000 Bayakoa Handicap was not only a success, but also may lead to a change in her 2007 campaign.

After the race, trainer Carla Gaines said Foxysox would be pointed to the three-race La Canada series for 4-year-old fillies of 2007 during the upcoming Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.

Foxysox certainly took to Hollywood Park's synthetic surface in the Grade 2 Bayakoa Handicap.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sid Attard and Reade Baker, who are in a heated battle for the Woodbine training title, will go mano a mano in Wednesday's headliner, a $100,000 allowance/optional claimer.

Heading into the final week of the meeting, Attard and Baker are tied with 74 wins apiece. In the feature, Attard will saddle the hot Mutakddim gelding Victoria's Boy, who should be the pacemaker in the seven-furlong event.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Though his breeding suggests he should have handled the turf, Paullinus went winless in two grass attempts over that surface. Wednesday, Paullinus returns to dirt in a $46,000 allowance feature at Aqueduct for horses who have never won two races.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Bend a Little's first career stakes win, in the Hermosa Beach Handicap at Hollywood Park on Nov. 11, made a fan of jockey Jose Valdivia Jr.

Valdivia rode Bend a Little for the first time in that turf race at 1 1/2 miles and was impressed by her performance after hearing a scouting report from trainer Christophe Clement's staff.

"Before the race, they told me that the distance would be no problem," Valdivia said. "She proved it."