VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Emerald Downs invader Marianne Rose and locally based Zaylaway head the $50,000 Lassie Stakes at Hastings Saturday. The 6 1/2-furlong feature for 2-year-old fillies drew nine horses and goes as the seventh race.

ALBANY, Calif. - It has been some time since Midwife has made it to the winner's circle, but that could change in Saturday's $50,000 Marina at Golden Gate Fields.

Midwife holds a pace advantage over her five rivals in the 1 1/16-mile overnight stakes on turf for fillies and mares. That could be all the 5-year-old Midwife needs to end an eight-race losing streak.

Midwife will make her third start following a two-month layoff as she returns to her home track.

As great as the experience was, Ron Moquett would prefer not to be remembered as a one-hit wonder. Moquett pulled off perhaps the biggest upset of the year when Seek Gold won the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at 91-1 in June at Churchill Downs, but the trainer wouldn't mind something a little less shocking for his next stakes win.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Grade 2, $200,000 Play the King is the main event, but a pair of overnight stakes also are part of Saturday's nine-race program at Woodbine.

Barilko looks for his third win in as many outings when he faces five rivals in the $100,000 Silver Deputy, a 7 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-olds.

Count to Three, owned by Sam-Son Farm and trained by Mark Frostad, will be coupled with stablemate See the Wind and is the one to beat in the $75,000 Belle Geste, a seven-furlong turf race for Ontario-foaled fillies and mares which attracted a field of seven.

FORT ERIE, Ontario - Rain or shine, scratches or not, trainer Daryl Ezra has a potent hand in Saturday's Fort Erie Cup, scheduled for seven furlongs on the turf. Showers are in the forecast.

Ezra, who is also the track's race-caller, has entered the trio of Grab the Cat, Lindsey's Dove, and Jet Engine in the $30,000 race for fillies and mares, which will have its distance changed to 6 1/2 furlongs should the surface be switched to dirt. Stephen Chesney owns the first two runners and shares the other with Ezra's brother Brad.

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Sand Rush looks like a prohibitive favorite while facing just three rivals in Saturday's $6,000 City Centre Bingo Twin Charities Handicap here at Marquis Downs.

Sand Rush has won four of his six starts in 2006 and was second in the other two. He should be very tough to catch as the lone speed in the one-mile Twin Charities.

His victory in the July 22 City Centre Bingo Early Bird Handicap has earned him a shot to scoop up a $2,000 bonus for winning the Twin Charities Handicap and the Sept. 8 Sweepstakes Handicap.

The Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot is back from a one-year hiatus brought on by Hurricane Rita. The jackpot, which will be run on Dec. 1, is the richest Thoroughbred race in Louisiana.

In all, 39 stakes worth a record $4,075,000 are scheduled for the 88-date season that opens Nov. 1. The meet will continue through March 31, 2007.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Before trainers Todd Pletcher and Tom Albertrani face off in Saturday's Grade 1 Travers with Bluegrass Cat and Bernardini, the two horsemen will do battle in Friday's Grade 1 Personal Ensign when Pletcher sends out Fleet Indian against the Albertrani-trained Balletto.

Only three other fillies and mares were entered in the $400,000 Personal Ensign, run at 1 1/4 miles over Saratoga's main track. The Personal Ensign tops a 10-race card that begins at 1 p.m. Eastern.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Preakness and Jim Dandy winner Bernardini drew post 5 and was installed as the even-money favorite by New York Racing Association linemaker Eric Donovan for Saturday's $1 million at Saratoga.

The field expanded to seven horses when trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. surprisingly put in Kip Deville, the beaten favorite in the Virginia Derby on turf last time out. Kip Deville, worked five furlongs in a bullet 59.14 seconds Wednesday morning over Saratoga's main track.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin would have preferred a better post for Saturday's Grade 1, $250,000 at seven furlongs, but his confidence wasn't shaken even after Henny Hughes drew post 2 in a surprisingly large field of 11 3-year-olds.