The $100,000 Queen City Oaks at River Downs is a restricted stakes, but it has the potential to satisfy the needs of both the hardcore bettor looking for a solid wagering opportunity and the racing traditionalist who simply wants to know which horse is best.

With nearly two-thirds of the meet in the books, and having seen only a sprinkling of overnight handicaps, fans at Fairmount Park are understandably hungry for some stakes action.

After one stakes was canceled last month due to a lack of entries, an appetizer of sorts will finally be served Saturday in the form of the $40,000 Bungalow Handicap for Illinois-bred fillies and mares at one mile and 70 yards. The Bungalow launches the Fairmount stakes program, which is highlighted this year by the $250,000 St. Louis Derby on Aug. 26.

Deb's Favoite Gift, second in the Larkspur Handicap to stablemate Bucky's Prayer, is the likely favorite for the $50,000 Moonbeam Handicap at Great Lakes Downs.

The Moonbeam, which drew a full field of 10 Michigan-bred fillies and mares, will be contested at one mile as the seventh race on a card that starts at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. Skydivers from the nearby Muskegon Air Fair will perform.

The undefeated filly Seekingthereinbow and the gelding Okie Time, both trained by Kelly Von Hemel, head a field of six 3-year-olds entered in the $60,000 Iowa Stallion Stakes at Prairie Meadows.

Owner Jerry Jamgotchian is taking a different route as he bids to win his second straight $40,000 Fairfield Stakes at the Solano County Fair.

Jamgotchian won last year's edition of the six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies with Luck and Fame, whom he had just claimed for $32,000.

This year, he sends up Yessiremychickadee, a $19,000 Ocala purchase last year, who has won 2 of 3 starts. She won her career debut at Santa Anita on March 10, followed it up with an allowance victory at Hollywood Park, and lost by a nose in an optional claimer at Hollywood last month.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Like the swallows that return every year to the Mission at San Juan Capistrano, so, too, do race fans flock to Del Mar each year for the track's opening day. It has become a must-do on the Southern California calendar, attracting people who come for the racing, to be seen because it's the place to be, or simply to enter a hat contest.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Not many fillies win their first stakes against males the way that Sharoana did in the Everett Nevin Alameda County Futurity at Pleasanton on July 2.

Not many stables win consecutive runnings of a Del Mar stakes the way Jeff Bonde did in the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes in 2004 and 2005.

MIAMI - One Off, second in the Grade 2 San Juan Capistrano Handicap earlier this season, will top a field of nine in Saturday's inaugural running of the $250,000 Bob Umphrey Turf Marathon Handicap, a two-mile grass race named after Calder's late racing secretary.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - has been a lightning rod for boxcar prices, but he might be the favorite in the featured eighth race on Friday at Arlington Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. - It was not surprising that Gary Contessa won both the Aqueduct inner-track and main-track trainer titles. He had won both meets at least once previously. It is somewhat surprising, however, that entering the final week of the meet, Contessa is in contention to win his first Belmont spring-summer crown.