AUBURN, Wash. - There is a new cast of characters and a different distance, 6 1/2 furlongs, for Sunday's Pepsi-Cola Handicap for 3-year-olds at Emerald Downs. One thing, however, remains unchanged from the May 7 running of the Seattle Handicap at six furlongs: Trainer Howard Belvoir will send out Courting Seattle and Tusko T., and both appear to be right on target.

Courting Seattle won the Seattle Handicap by 2 3/4 lengths over pacesetter Ballou Slew. Tusko T. finished another nose back in third.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - With 4 wins from his first 13 starters, trainer Rob Van Overschot is off to a very good start at the Hastings meet. He is hoping to add to those totals when he saddles Power Chip in the Jim Coleman Province Stakes at Hastings on Sunday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Some really fast horses have won the Aristides Breeders' Cup since a onetime claimer named Bet the Pot took the 1989 inaugural. Orientate won the Aristides a few months before winning the BC Sprint to earn the Eclipse Award for top sprinter in 2002, and speedsters such as Beau Genius, Lord Carson, Bet on Sunshine, and Champali also captured the Aristides en route to the BC Sprint.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The pick six went untouched for the second consecutive day at Hollywood Park on Thursday, creating a carryover of $526,158 for Friday's eight-race program.

Friday's card begins at 7:05 p.m. The first leg of the pick six is the third race, which is due off at 8:02 p.m., Pacific time.

Friday's pick six features two turf races, one of which is a sprint; and four races on the main track, three of which are sprints.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It was four weeks ago Saturday that Joint Effort handled a Todd Pletcher standout with surprising ease. The race was the La Troienne Stakes, the sixth on the Kentucky Derby card, and Joint Effort earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 103 when she defeated the Pletcher-trained favorite, Adieu, by 3 1/4 lengths.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A horse winning three consecutive runnings of a stakes is a rarity, but Saturday it could happen at Churchill Downs for the second time in less than a week.

On Monday, Silverfoot won the Louisville Handicap for the third year in a row. Senor Swinger will attempt to match that accomplishment Saturday by winning his third straight running of the , a 1 1/16-mile turf race

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Star Parade will make her 21st consecutive appearance in a graded stakes when she starts as the favorite in Saturday's $175,000 at Hollywood Park.

It is a remarkable streak of racing at the highest level, a span that includes six stakes wins, including a front-running victory in the Grade 3 Hawthorne Handicap here on May 7. Star Parade's consistency has left trainer Darrell Vienna confident that the 7-year-old mare can win consecutive stakes for the first time in more than two years in the Grade 2 Milady, a 1 1/16-mile race she won in 2004.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A year and three months since he last started, Declan's Moon, the champion 2-year-old male of 2004, is nearing a comeback, and impressing trainer Ron Ellis with his workouts.

In a career twice interrupted by injury, Declan's Moon has been working steadily in recent weeks at Santa Anita, including a five-furlong work in 59.60 seconds on Thursday. Ellis hopes that Declan's Moon's bad luck is behind him and that he is nearing a memorable comeback later this summer.

"He looks awesome," Ellis said. "He might be a better horse now than before."

ELMONT, N.Y. - Stadore may be second best of the two fillies trainer Patrick Biancone nominated to Saturday's $100,000 Sands Point Stakes at Belmont Park, but she may be good enough to get the job done in the Grade 3 race for 3-year-old fillies.

Of course, that all depends upon the race staying on Belmont's inner turf course. Thunderstorms are forecast Friday night into Saturday morning.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Ambitious Cat, last year's champion turf female in Canada, launches her 2006 Woodbine campaign Saturday in the Grade 2, $300,000 Nassau Stakes.

A Storm Cat mare, Ambitious Cat was a solid allowance performer before the 2005 Nassau, in which she finished second to favored American invader Que Puntual. Ambitious Cat went on to be second in the Grade 2 Canadian Handicap, and the highlight of her campaign was a half-length loss to Honey Ryder and Latice in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes on Oct. 23.