POMONA, Calif. - Mel Stute has been training winners at the Los Angeles County Fair since practically the beginning of time.

Back to when Fairplex Park was called simply "Pomona" and nobody really cared what happened there. "It used to be more fun than serious," Stute said.

Horseplayers and horsemen still have fun at the Fair, but the game has changed since the first pari-mutuel meet there in 1933. And while Stute, 79, has racked up 183 wins at Fairplex, the all-time leading trainer has noticed a shift.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Point Ashley, who cruised to a 2 1/2-length win in Monday's Del Mar Debutante, came out of the race in good condition and will have one more start before heading to Churchill Downs for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 4, according to her trainer, Bob Baffert.

"That was awesome," Baffert said of her performance. "What I loved about it is she broke on top, then Victor got her back, got her outside, and got her to be patient. She's a really good filly. She's always shown so much quality.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Breeders' Stakes winner Royal Challenger switches from turf to Woodbine's Polytrack in Friday's headliner, an allowance prep for the Oct. 1 Ontario Derby.

Royal Challenger has come a long way since he got drilled in an $80,000 maiden claimer at Gulfstream in February. Following a three-month absence, he graduated with little fanfare here in a minor seven-furlong maiden race.

AUBURN, Wash. - Idabetabuck has the right style to prevail in Friday's Emerald Downs feature, a six-furlong race for $20,000 claimers that has lured a field of six older sprinters.

Idabetabuck, a 4-year-old son of Individual Style from the barn of trainer Frank Lucarelli, is coming off a sharp score over $15,000 claimers in which he came from just off the pace to score by 4 1/4 lengths in 1:09.40. That stalking style should serve Idabetabuck well on Friday, as he will be meeting a great deal of speed.

Tartan Star, beaten a neck by Langara Lass in the 1 1/16-mile Sonoma here Aug. 12, shortens up to a mile and faces just four rivals in the fourth running of the Filly Sales Stakes on Friday evening. Each of the 3-year-old fillies in the $50,000 stakes will carry 119 pounds, and Tartan Star stands out as the class of the field.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Steve Flint was not the only person to watch with interest the Spinaway Stakes on Monday at Saratoga, a 2 year-old filly race with major implications for the fall. And Flint was familiar with the 5 1/4-length winner of the Grade 1 Spinaway, Appealing Zophie, since a month earlier a filly Flint trains, Change Up, had beaten Appealing Zophie by more than four lengths.

The Illinois Thoroughbred Horse-men's Association denied Television Games Network the right to broadcast the Arlington Park signal on Wednesday, though the horsemen's issue with TVG concerns Hawthorne Race Course and not Arlington, according to Justin Cassity, executive director of the horsemen's group.

A $250,000 colt by Hold That Tiger headlined the select session of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's annual yearling sale at the Woodbine Sales Pavilion on Tuesday.

Winsong Farm purchased the sale topper from Gail Wood, the owner of Woodlands Farm, who was the agent for owner Bill Diamant. The colt is out of the Forty Niner mare Brittan Lee, the dam of four winners. Hold That Tiger, a freshman sire by Storm Cat, was Europe's champion 2-year-old in 2002.

Thistledown is introducing a new bet Friday, the Straight Flush, a $1 minimum bet that requires bettors to pick the first five finishers in a race.

If no one correctly picks the first five, 25 percent of the pool will be returned to those tickets with the most correct numbers, and the remaining 75 percent will carry to the next card.

The wager, to be offered on Thistledown's last race each day, will have a takeout of 25 percent.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Ever since the project was announced this spring, trainer Paul Nielsen has been looking forward to running La Trillium over the Polytrack surface here at Woodbine.

On Saturday, Nielsen will get his wish when he sends out La Trillium for the Grade 3, $150,000 Seaway, a 6 1/2-furlong race for fillies and mares.