OCEANPORT, N.J. - Latent Heat takes an important step in his comeback while Gottcha Gold and Praying for Cash renew their rivalry Saturday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Long Branch Stakes for 3-year-olds at Monmouth Park.

The Long Branch is Monmouth's traditional prep for the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Aug. 6.

The Long Branch, at 1 1/16 miles, drew only six runners, as it faced stiff competition from the $350,000 Ohio Derby on Saturday at Thistledown and the $300,000 Leonard Richards Stakes on Sunday at Delaware Park.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Tom Proctor gave Rich in Spirit a legitimate reason to lose even before she ran in the June 17 Mint Julep Handicap at Churchill Downs. Proctor said the Mint Julep "came up absolutely huge" and that the winner should be able "to go somewhere else and take on some real nice mares."

Rich in Spirit wound up second, 1 3/4 lengths behind the multiple graded winner My Typhoon, who did go somewhere else - back to Belmont Park, where she has resumed steady training for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott while being pointed to the Saratoga meet.

Winston Churchill's famous quotation concerning "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma," supposedly referred to Russia. He might as well have been talking about Saturday's Round Table Stakes at Arlington.

Aptly named for her task Saturday, Vaca City Flyer will be gunning for her fourth straight stakes victory when she meets four rivals in the six-furlong $50,000 Vacaville Handicap at the Solano County Fair.

A 5-year-old mare who has won 12 of 22 starts, Vaca City Flyer has five victories and a fourth in the Grade 3 Las Flores since joining Art Sherman's barn in December.

She will make her first start since capturing the May 13 Monterey Handicap at five furlongs on the turf at Bay Meadows, beating Royal Kleven, one of her rivals Saturday.

Five 3-year-olds who are graduates of the 2004 Saskatchewan yearling sale compete over seven furlongs Saturday in the $7,500 Sales Stake at Marquis Downs in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Excessively Sweet should take the bulk of the public support given her 3 wins from 4 starts in 2006.

Excessively Sweet started off her year at Stampede Park versus $12,000 claiming fillies, and won 2 of her 3 starts there. A return to the local scene for the June 30 Old Dutch Handicap produced a four-length victory and should make her the logical choice to extend her win streak to four.

A full field of 12 2-year-old fillies has been entered in Saturday's $40,000 Debutante Stakes at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Four of the fillies in the 5 1/2-furlong race are winners and four will race with Lasix for the first time.

Nice Deed won the first 2-year-old race of the year here on June 23. She defeated the colt Thunder Buns, who returned to win his next start. Jockey Carlos Marquez has chosen Nice Deed over Suzy's Success, who finished second in her only start.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Roughly halfway through Sunday's $150,000 Sunset Breeders' Cup Handicap, trainer Dan Hendricks will have a good idea of whether Runaway Dancer can win the turf marathon.

A quick pace will help the late kick of Runaway Dancer, who won the 2003 Carleton Burke Handicap and 2005 Jim Murray Handicap at the Sunset distance of 1 1/2 miles on turf. A slow pace Sunday will have Hendricks looking forward to the Del Mar meeting later this summer with the 7-year-old gray gelding.

Bad luck is starting to haunt jockey Jill Jellison the way it did Red Pollard, another famous former New England rider. While Pollard had Seabiscuit, Jellison - the fourth all-time leading female jockey by wins - will be happy just to get back to racing at Suffolk Downs after breaking her left arm in a training accident Wednesday morning.

Ferocious Won will try to stay alive for a $250,000 bonus, and Fire One Up will try to accomplish what his big brother failed to do in Saturday's 34th running of the New York Derby at Finger Lakes.

By winning the seven-furlong Mike Lee at Belmont Park three weeks ago, Ferocious Won set himself up for a quarter-million-dollar payday if he can capture the 1 1/16-mile, $150,000 New York Derby and the 1 1/8-mile Albany Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 23 to complete an unprecedented sweep of the Big Apple Triple for 3-year-old New York-breds.

Original Gold, a stakes winner on West Virginia Breeders Classics Night each of the past two seasons, and defending champion Carnival Chrome both return from a long layoff in the $50,000 Sadie Hawkins Handicap at Charles Town.

The seven-furlong stakes, restricted to West Virginia-bred fillies and mares, drew just six entries.

Original Gold, who won the $225,000 Cavada in 2004 and 2005, will be making her first start since November. Original Gold finished fourth in last year's Sadie Hawkins.