VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer John Snow should know a good 3-year-old when he sees one. After all, he trains Roscoe Pito, who won both the 2003 Emerald Downs Breeders' Cup Derby and the Grade 2 British Columbia Derby. Roscoe Pito is still running, and recently won the Independence Day Handicap at Emerald.

Snow thinks a recent addition to his barn, Parkhimonbroadway, is a real nice 3-year-old, and he is hoping for a big race from him in the Richmond Derby Trial Sunday. If Snow is right and Parkhimonbroadway does run one of his better races, they aren't going to beat him.

AUBURN, Wash. - No filly has ever swept the four stakes for 2-year-old females at Emerald Downs, and until this year only one - Banana Raspberry in 1998 - managed to win the first two.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Hirapour, the steeplechase champion of 2004, was injured in the New York Turf Writers Cup on Thursday at Saratoga, possibly ending his career a few months earlier than expected.

Trainer Doug Fout said that the 10-year gelding, who was scheduled to be retired at the end of the season, came out of the race with damage to his right front ankle and was lame Friday morning.

"Unfortuantely, I think he might have a chip in his ankle," Fout said.

Past performances for Golden Gate's Sunday $50,000 guaranteed pick four will appear at the end of the full-card file for the following tracks:

Saratoga/Belmont
Del Mar/Fairplex Park
Arlington Park/Hawthorne
Calder
Ellis Park/Keeneland
Delaware Park
Louisiana Downs
Emerald Downs
Mountaineer Park

:: (Pick 4 races are 1, 2, 3, 4)

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Todd Pletcher wasn't expecting Flower Alley to be at his best when he ran him in the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap on Aug. 5. But he surely wasn't expecting last year's Jim Dandy and Travers winner to finish seventh, nine lengths behind Invasor.

Entering Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 , Pletcher is expecting Flower Alley to deliver a much better performance. The question handicappers must decipher is whether that's good enough for Flower Alley to beat a deep Woodward field that includes Suave, Sun King, Funny Cide, and Wild Desert.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - On the marquee, Saturday's Grade 1, $250,000 Forego Stakes may rank below the $500,000 Woodward Stakes on the same 11-race card, but it has the makings of being not only the best race of the day, but of the meet.

Four of the 11 horses entered in the seven-furlong Forego have won Grade 1 stakes at Saratoga, including 2005 Whitney winner Commentator, 2005 Forego winner Mass Media, 2004 King's Bishop winner Pomeroy, and 2003 Hopeful winner Silver Wagon.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas turns 71 on Saturday, but he hopes really to celebrate come dusk on Monday when he sends out Pegasus Wind in the Grade 1, $250,000 Hopeful Stakes for juvenile colts.

Lukas, who has won five runnings of the Hopeful, has been high on Pegasus Wind, a son of Fusaichi Pegasus, from the beginning. He was high enough to run him in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor Stakes at Churchill Downs as a first-time starter. Pegasus Wind finished fifth in that race, 3 1/2 lengths behind Circular Quay.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Mixed Up overtook pacesetter Mark the Shark at the final fence and held off Top of the Bill in the run to the wire Thursday to win the Grade 1 at Saratoga.

Hirapour, the 2004 Eclipse Award winner and the 1-2 favorite in the field of seven, never moved into contention and finished fifth. As they entered the backstretch run for the final time about a half-mile from the finish, jockey Matthew McCarron moved Hirapour to the outside to begin his run. But the 10-year-old gelding, carrying high weight of 164 pounds, had trouble getting over the jump.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who has not ridden since July 16, remains hospitalized in the Los Angeles area for undisclosed reasons, according to his agent, Tom Knust.

His prolonged absence has led California Horse Racing Board officials to seek opinions from the state attorney general's office as to whether Valenzuela has violated terms of his provisional jockey's license, according to CHRB executive director Ingrid Fermin.

"I asked for a review of the contract and I haven't gotten an opinion yet," Fermin said Thursday.

DEL MAR, Calif. - The bar has been raised high. Bernardini has parlayed his Preakness victory into wins in the Jim Dandy and Travers Stakes. Lawyer Ron came back last weekend to capture the St. Louis Derby. Discreet Cat romped last weekend at Saratoga. Showing Up took the Secretariat Stakes. Yes, many of the top 3-year-olds from the first half of the year have kept on motoring right through the summer.