MIAMI - Thanks to her older sister Madcap Escapade, Dubai Escapade has a shot to become a Grade 1 winner for the first time this weekend.

Madcap Escapade won the 2005 Princess Rooney Handicap at Calder, a performance that likely convinced the North American Graded Stakes Committee to elevate the Princess Rooney to Grade 1 status for the first time this summer. On Saturday, Dubai Escapade will go off as the odds-on favorite against six other fillies and mares in the , a six-furlong race that carries a $500,000 purse.

MIAMI - Anybody looking to single a race or two in the all-stakes pick five on Saturday's Summit of Speed program at Calder will probably consider Lost in the Fog in the Smile Sprint Handicap and Dubai Escapade in the Princess Rooney Handicap. The best bet on the card, though, may actually be Too Much Bling, who appears to hold a decided class edge over his seven rivals in the $300,000 Carry Back Stakes.

MIAMI - On most any other day during the long Calder summer session, $100,000 races such as the Calder Turf Sprint and Distaff Turf Sprint handicaps would be the highlight of the afternoon. But not Saturday, when those two races plus the $80,000 Birdonthewire and $80,000 Cassidy stakes will support the four graded races on the card while also serving as preps for more lucrative stakes later in the meet.

Three weeks ago, Showing Up was the star of Colonial Downs, drawing away to a powerful 3 3/4-length victory in the $1 million Colonial Turf Cup in course-record time. On Saturday at Colonial, Showing Up will be resting in his stall at Belmont Park, and Colonial will be looking for a new star in its signature race, the Grade 2, $1 million Virginia Derby at 1 1/4 miles on the turf.

Bettors may need to look no further than the Turf Cup's second-place finisher, the front-running Kip Deville, who is coming into the paceless Virginia Derby with a new jockey and a new strategy.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Infirmities and a little bad luck have conspired to prevent Go Deputy from becoming a graded stakes winner to this point in his career. Now the healthiest he has ever been, according to his connections, the 6-year-old looks well spotted to earn that first stakes score in Saturday's $150,000 Bowling Green Handicap at Belmont Park.

NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - High Cotton, a stakes winner in 3 of his last 4 starts, is a deserving favorite in Saturday's Grade 2, $350,000 Ohio Derby, but the expected quick pace in the six-horse field could compromise his chances.

has been judiciously handled by trainer Todd Pletcher while being spotted a cut below the nation's top 3-year-olds, and the colt has responded by winning three stakes: the Grade 3 Northern Dancer Breeders' Cup at Churchill Downs, the Sir Barton at Pimlico, and the Rushaway at Turfway Park.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - You can make your speed figures, take your trip notes. But how about this handicapping angle: Rafael Bejarano, among the nation's leading jockeys, rides one horse in the seven Claiming Crown races on Saturday at Canterbury Park, and to take the mount on , Bejarano will rush from the Virginia Derby, post time 5:40 Eastern, onto a charter flight that will bring him here for the Claiming Crown Jewel, post time 8:30 Central.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Stretching won three races in a row between December and April, and a second-place finish May 29 in a decent Grade 3 stakes makes her the horse to beat on Saturday in the Lady Canterbury Breeders' Cup Stakes.

But win streak pales compared with the string of victories put together last year by Rue des Reves, who has returned to Canterbury to defend her title in the $100,000 Lady Canterbury, a one-mile grass race.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - If Scott Lake wanted to be audacious, he might have entered Distinct Vision in the $150,000 Claiming Crown Jewel - the horse would not be overmatched. But Distinct Vision has a much easier spot, and figures to be one of the evening's shortest prices when he starts in the $50,000 Claiming Crown Iron Horse, the first of seven Claiming Crown races at Canterbury Park on Saturday.

For Lake, the Iron Horse offers the chance to break a three-year Claiming Crown losing streak. Lake, the leading trainer in Claiming Crown history, has horses for four races.

Gasia sold for a modest $12,000 as a yearling and spent her 2-year-old season far from racing's spotlight at Prairie Meadows and Ellis Park. But she has more than a puncher's chance in the $500,000 Delaware Oaks.

The Grade 2 Oaks tops three stakes on Saturday's nine-race card at Delaware Park, a prelude to the meet's centerpiece, the $1 million Delaware Handicap on Sunday.