AUBURN, Wash. - Raise the Bluff is the one to beat on Sunday when he takes on eight other 3-year-olds at six furlongs in the $40,000 Auburn Handicap at Emerald Downs.

Raise the Bluff, a son of Pine Bluff from the barn of trainer Junior Coffey, finished in the exacta in 4 of his 5 starts last season, and only narrow losses to Schoolin You in the WTBA Lads and the Gottstein Futurity deprived him of divisional honors. With Schoolin You sidelined by a foot injury, Raise the Bluff figures to be favored on Sunday.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Asong for Billy and My Master have some questions to answer when they run in the feature race at Hastings Sunday. The 6 1/2-furlong optional $35,000 claiming race for older horses goes as the seventh race.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland Meadows concludes its 2005-06 season on Sunday with an 11-race card topped by the $7,500 Redline Invitational Handicap. The Redline, a six-furlong test for older sprinters, has drawn a field of five headed by Emerald Downs invader Call Columbo.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The Triple Crown cannot end soon enough for horse owner Merv Griffin and trainer Doug O'Neill.

About the same time that the Belmont Stakes is run on June 10, Griffin's Stevie Wonderboy, the champion 2-year-old male of 2005, will be returning to racetrack training after being sidelined for 90 days following ankle surgery.

"He's due back in five weeks or so, and at that stage we start tack-walking," O'Neill said on Thursday.

Cole Norman knows horsepower wins training titles. He has 15 training titles to his name at the age of 37, and this meet at Louisiana Downs is chasing his ninth consecutive top-trainer title at the Bossier City, La., track. If he snags it, he will tie the track record of nine set by Frank Brothers in 1980-88.

But even though Norman has dominated at Louisiana Downs since 1998, his stable is in somewhat of a rebuilding mode right now, and he is anxious about the meet that opened on Friday.

"We're short on horses and strong on clients," he said.

A year ago, David Yount, the executive director of racing operations at Evangeline Downs, was sitting in his sparkling new clubhouse a month into the facility's inaugural season, and said: "Our goal is to be Louisiana's leading racetrack."

The remark was greeted with skepticism in some circles, with both Fair Grounds and Louisiana Downs enjoying national prominence, not to mention the success Delta Downs has had since becoming the first track in the state to open a slots facility.

OLDSMAR, Fla. - The biggest news at this meet, which concludes Sunday, has been the revamping and improvement of the racing program under the guidance of new racing secretary John Morrissey and his staff. Unfortunately, Morrissey will not be returnintg next season.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Handle, field size, and average purses were up, but average ontrack attendance was down at Aqueduct Racetrack's 81-day winter-spring meet, which ran from Jan. 1 through April 30.

Aqueduct ran one fewer day than the previous year, and ran 23 fewer races, 12 of which fell victim to two partial-card cancellations, on April 5 and April 23, when racing was halted after three races each day.

Total attendance was 248,110, a daily average of 3,063 that was down 3.3 percent from last year's average of 3,168.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Kentucky Oaks upset by Lemons Forever has led to massive will-pay payoffs in the Oaks-Derby Double. The lowest payoff for a $2 wager would be $856 in case Sweetnorthernsaint wins the Derby; the highest would be $8,111.60 if Seaside Retreat wins.

The entire list of payoffs for $2 are:

1. Jazil, $1,752.80

2. Steppenwolfer, 1,825.80

3. Keyed Entry, 3,824.20

4. Sinister Minister, 2,288.00

5. Point Determined, 904.80

6. Showing Up, 2,761.60

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The upset by Lemons Forever in the 132nd Kentucky Oaks resulted in a sweep for the mutuel field in all three pools of the Oaks Future Wager.

Racing fans who played the field in Pool 1 received a payoff of $9 for each $2 wager. For Pool 2, the price was $11, and for Pool 3 the price was $26.