ELMONT, N.Y. - Of the eight fillies and mares looking for their first open stakes win in Thursday's $65,000 Numbered Account at Belmont Park, only Grecian Lover, who is dropping in class, and Judy Soda, last-out winner of the Saratoga Dew for New York-breds, are locally based.

Grecian Lover has started a dozen times this year, the last nine for Allen Jerkens, who took over her training in Florida last winter. Six of her seven starts in New York have been in Grade 1 or Grade 2 stakes, the lone exception a victory against third-level allowance sprinters here in July.

The best of the many good stories to come out of Saturday's Festival of the Sun Preview program had to be the 2 1/2-length victory by Gal Wonder in the $150,000 Brave Raj Stakes.

Gal Wonder, a 2-year-old daughter of Three Wonders, was purchased privately by owner Carol Castille less than 48 hours before the Brave Raj and was left in the care of trainer Larry Pilotti. She was ridden to victory by Rosemary Homeister Jr., who posted her first stakes win since coming out of retirement earlier this meet.

ALBANY, Calif. - What's not to like about Luxury Flight?

From a handicapper's standpoint, the only knock on the 5-year-old Luxury Flight is that she will likely be heavily bet in Thursday's third race at Golden Gate Fields when she meets five rivals in a $32,000 claimer for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

Luxury Flight has won two straight, first on dirt and last time on turf, at the same distance here when she was re-claimed by trainer Chuck Jenda for owner Nicholas Alexander.

FRANKLIN, Ky. - Embossed looked like a budding stakes winner when he finished a close third behind Gun Salute in last October's Hawthorne Derby. It just took him a year or so to realize that potential.

Tuesday at Kentucky Downs, the 4-year-old Embossed won his first stakes race, taking the Grade 3, $200,000 Kentucky Cup Turf by a nose over fellow longshot Lord Carmen.

After nearly five months of watching horses run around the Arlington Park oval, the move to Hawthorne in the fall comes as something of a shock. Here, the track surface is deeper, so much deeper that one really gets the sense of watching horses running slower. And, the Hawthorne homestretch is longer. At Arlington, the field turns for home, and bang, there's the finish line. The Hawthorne stretch run seems to go on forever.

"One-hundred percent," trainer Mark Cristel said of the Arlington-Hawthorne dichotomy. "It's just totally different."

Get tied on. Those might be the only instructions trainer Cole Norman needs to pass on to apprentice Cody Meche on Thursday night, when he rides True Tails for the first time in the $40,000 New Braunfels Stakes at Retama Park near San Antonio.

True Tails is arguably the quickest filly in the region, and she has used her speed to win stakes at Lone Star Park and Louisiana Downs. She is returning to her best surface, dirt, for the New Braunfels.

While Le Cinquieme Essai walked the shed row here on a quiet Tuesday morning at Woodbine, his trainer, Paul Nielsen, couldn't help but wonder what might have been.

On Aug. 26, Le Cinquieme Essai had defeated California shipper Becrux to win the Grade 2 Play the King, a seven-furlong turf race that is the major local prep for the $1 million Woodbine Mile. But when the Woodbine Mile was run on Sept.o17, Le Cinquieme Essai was out with a season-ending injury. Becrux went on to give trainer Neil Drysdale a third victory in the race.

POMONA, Calif. - Although Fairplex Park has suspended pursuit of additional racing dates, the 16-day meet that ended Monday at the Los Angeles County Fair reaffirmed Fairplex as a key player on the Southern California circuit. For the second consecutive year, Fairplex surpassed its record handle by averaging more than $7.1 million daily.

The new Polytrack surface at Keeneland Race Course is scheduled to open for training Friday, two days after the stable area is opened, officials at the Lexington, Ky., track said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Keeneland has scheduled a open house for the general public for Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern. Fans will be permitted to walk over the Polytrack, while a wide variety of other activities and giveaways will be offered.

ALBANY, Calif. - Golden Gate Fields will salute Eclipse Sprint champion Lost in the Fog, his owner Harry Aleo and trainer Greg Gilchrist on Saturday. A special DVD featuring each of the colt's victories will be given away, and career highlights will be shown throughout the day.

Golden Gate Fields has been swamped with requests about the video and had fans from as far away as Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey inquire about attending the day to pay their respects to the colt, who was euthanized on Sept. 17 after battling cancer.