Malibu Mint is the only Grade 1 winner among the six fillies and mares entered in Friday's $150,000 Honorable Miss Stakes, and she's the likely favorite, although there are several factors that could make her vulnerable in the six-furlong, Grade 2 race. The Honorable Miss is one of three stakes on Friday's 10-race card, along with the $70,000 Ashado and $70,000 Capote Belle.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 3

Wednesday's plays, along with the rest of the card, were cancelled due to the extreme heat wave that gripped the Northeast. We broke even!

Fortunately, things were supposed to get a bit better on Thursday, when the high temperature was expected to be only in the mid-80s.

RACE 4

It is mighty tempting to follow the crowd into the third week of the Del Mar season.

After all, the public has nailed winners this summer with absolute precision. After 12 days of racing, the win rate of Del Mar chalk is 44 percent (46 for 103), and a $2 win bet on every post-time favorite has produced an unusually high $2.30 return on investment.

Is it a short-term aberration? Or will the chalk-heavy trend continue? Sure hope it's the latter, because this column will continue to identify potential overlays.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - As a 3-year-old, Flower Alley was asked to do a lot in a short period of time. Only 78 days passed from the time he won his first race to the day he stepped into the Churchill Downs starting gate as a 41-1 shot in the Kentucky Derby.

But in the second half of the year, no 3-year-old was better. Flower Alley won the Jim Dandy and Travers, and after a hiccup in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, he finished the year with a second-place finish to the 5-year-old Saint Liam in the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Rewrite and J'ray may be the leading 3-year-old New York-bred turf fillies in training. But as offspring of Kentucky-based stallions, neither is eligible for Thursday's $150,000 Statue of Liberty Stakes, which is restricted to 3-year-old daughters of New York-based stallions.

That makes for a fairly wide-open feature on Thursday at Saratoga. This is the fourth running of the Statue of Liberty, the first on turf. Fewer than half of the 13 entrants have a win on the grass, and none of them has won at the race's 1 1/8-mile distance.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The scenario is an unlikely one for success. A former $75,000 claimer, whose trainer has never even started a horse at Saratoga, goes against the big boys in a prestigious Grade 1 race. But that will be the case here Saturday when Calder-based trainer Dan Hurtak brings his red-hot Siphon City up from south Florida to face division kingpins Invasor and Flower Alley in the $750,000 Whitney Handicap.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Gary Mandella will be hoping he has the long and the short of it Thursday at Del Mar. He has top contenders in the day's two richest races - a route and a sprint, both on turf - including the featured seventh, in which Mandella sends out Jazzerin, who has improved significantly since moving to Mandella's barn and to the turf.

DEL MAR, Calif. - At the end of 2004, Declan's Moon was the best 2-year-old in the land, and Giacomo, who had finished second to Declan's Moon in the Hollywood Futurity, was not far behind.

Declan's Moon subsequently was named the champion 2-year-old that year, and the following spring Giacomo won the Kentucky Derby. Both of their careers have had hiccups since then, but on Tuesday morning at Del Mar, within about five minutes of one another, both turned in drills for upcoming stakes races at Del Mar on Aug 20.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - The Ohio Derby was a solid comeback race for Deputy Glitters and Flashy Bull following their disappointments in the Triple Crown.

Deputy Glitters prevailed at the end of a long drive to beat High Cotton by a neck to score his first win since the Tampa Bay Derby. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 105.

Flashy Bull finished third, 1 1/2 lengths behind the top two, in an effort that trainer Kiaran McLaughlin called a "great race."

They will likely meet again Sunday in the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park at 1 1/8 miles.

CHICAGO - Christine Janks has won 22 races at the Arlington meet, third best among trainers, and has tallied victories with a vast array of horses, but For Gillian has been left out. A four-time winner, For Gillian is 0 for 4 in 2006, and has lost twice at the Arlington meet, most recently finishing sixth in the Grade 3 Chicago Breeders' Cup Handicap on June 17. If For Gillian is to join the ranks of Janks winners at Arlington, she is going to have to find a way to beat Leah's Secret in the eighth race on Thursday.