PARIS - Deep Impact, lauded in Japan as the best horse ever produced in that country, will find conditions to his liking at Longchamp on Sunday as he attempts an historic victory in the $2.55 million Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland Racecourse opened its newly renovated main track for training on Friday morning, attracting approximately 200 horses whose trainers and riders were eager to test out its synthetic surface and new contours just one week before the track opens its fall meet.

"I'm like a kid with a new toy," said jockey Robbie Albarado, after working three horses over the track. "I can't wait for the races to start."

ELMONT, N.Y. - Ashkal Way, who has been a pleasant surprise for the Goldolphin Stable of Sheikh Mohammed this year, bids for a second straight graded stakes victory Saturday in the Grade 2, $250,000 Kelso Breeders' Cup Stakes on the turf at Belmont Park.

The one-mile Kelso, with a 4:15 p.m. Eastern post time, starts the NTRA National Pick 4, which offers a guaranteed $400,000 pool. The four races - the Kelso, the Kentucky Cup Classic, the Yellow Ribbon, and the Clement Hirsch Turf Championship - will be telecast live by ESPN from 4-6 p.m.

Larry Goulding, the chief clocker and official photographer at Hastings, died Monday of cancer. He was 49.

A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday in the George Royal Room at Hastings.

Born in Winnipeg, Goulding was raised in Southern California but moved to Vancouver in 1976 and took his first racetrack job as a groom for trainer Mel Snow. He later worked as an assistant to trainer Mike Drozdowski, and his charges included Barbex, a multiple stakes winner in the mid-1980's.

Carolina Sky ran well enough on dirt, but when she moved to turf she stepped up her game considerably and on Saturday will be favored to win her fifth straight race in the $100,000 River Cities Breeders' Cup at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La.

The race is the meet's richest turf offering for fillies and mares, and it will be run at about 1 1/16 miles. Others in the field include Due to Win Again, who is the two-time defending champ, More than Promised, and Rue des Reves.

High Strike Zone, who set a track record at six furlongs this spring, will cut back to that distance Saturday night for the $40,000 J.R. Straus Memorial at Retama. High Strike Zone won an Evangeline allowance in a record 1:08.80 in March.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Out of desperation, trainer Jimmy Jerkens switched Lemon Drop Gal to the turf in June.

The 4-year-old filly perked up noticeably, winning 2 of 3 and scoring her first stakes win last time out in the Grab the Green Stakes at Saratoga.

Lemon Drop Gal bids for another stakes win Saturday in the $65,000 License Fee Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs.

ARCADIA, Calif. - No horse in the United States has beaten The Tin Man this year.

Three starts have resulted in three stakes wins, including a front-running win in the Arlington Million in August. The Tin Man's only loss of 2006 was a second-place finish in the $5 million Dubai Duty Free Stakes in Dubai in March, and he earned $1 million for that.

Those accomplishments make The Tin Man a short-priced favorite to win the seventh stakes of his career in Saturday's $250,000 Clement Hirsch Turf Championship at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting.

FLORENCE, Ky. - Five weeks from Saturday, Perfect Drift can make Breeders' Cup history by becoming the first horse to compete in the BC Classic for a fifth time.

But the 7-year-old gelding will first have to pass a critical test toward the BC Classic when he faces six other older horses in the $350,000 Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park.

Trainer Murray Johnson is confident that Perfect Drift, the likely favorite in the Grade 2 KC Classic, will snap a nine-race losing streak and leave little doubt that he deserves to return to the Breeders' Cup.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting began on Wednesday with increases in attendance and handle over the corresponding day in 2005.

Wednesday's nine-race program drew an ontrack crowd of 14,008, a gain of 47 percent over last year's audience of 9,489. The crowd was boosted by a promotion of free admission, parking, and Daily Racing Forms for members of the track's frequent-customer program.