LEXINGTON, Ky. - With the 22nd Breeders' Cup set for Oct. 29 in New York, the prep races with the highest quality are being run at Belmont Park. Trainers want their horses to get a race over the track, a swing variable that has bolstered the fields at Belmont while simultaneously depleting the available pool of talent elsewhere.

This is a pattern that generally develops whenever the Breeders' Cup is held on a major circuit. For example, in years when the Breeders' Cup is held at Churchill Downs, the prep races at Keeneland frequently are the most attractive.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The seven older males entered in the main body of Thursday's feature at Belmont Park have come from all over the place.

ARCADIA, Calif. - It is the season for prep races. The lightly raced 3-year-old filly Proposed may not be being considered for the Breeders' Cup Distaff, but the California Cup Matron is dead ahead, and Proposed still needs to prove she can win around two turns.

Nine fillies and mares entered the seventh-race feature Thursday at Santa Anita, where Proposed figures to start as the heavy choice in the 1 1/16-mile race which, for Proposed, will be a prep race for the $150,000 Cal Cup Matron on Nov. 6.

CHICAGO - It's natural to think "Southwest" when the trainer Bret Calhoun comes up. Calhoun's a Texan, and he's had great success racing in Texas and Louisiana. Hawthorne Race Course sits in the southwest part of central Chicago; perhaps that's why Calhoun has settled in here with a stronger string than in previous seasons.

MIAMI - In Summation, who will attempt to complete a sweep of the Florida Stallion Stakes in the $400,000 In Reality Stakes on

Oct. 15, continues to train well for his two-turn debut. Undefeated and barely tested in five starts, In Summation worked a mile for the first time in 1:44.60 here Monday.

In Summation worked in company along with stablemate First Movement, who will also start in the 1 1/16-mile In Reality. First Movement was timed in 1:45.20.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Mona Rose and Velvet Snow, both coming out of a key race that produced two next-out winners, are the principal contenders in Thursday's Woodbine feature, a one-mile turf allowance for fillies and mares.

Mona Rose is winless in five starts this year, but has run several strong races at the meeting. She closed for third when meeting male opposition in a slow-paced classified allowance on July 28, but failed to duplicate that performance in the allowance prep for the Canadian Handicap, finishing sixth of 10.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Gotaghostofachance might have given Rock Hard Ten a better fight last Saturday in the Goodwood Handicap than Roman Ruler, but he never got the chance. Rather than set the pace in the Goodwood, Gotaghostofachance trained listlessly into the race and trainer Roger Stein had no choice but to scratch him.

"Maybe it all happened for a good reason," Stein said Tuesday after Gotaghostofachance bounced back with a sharp three-furlong work.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Malcolm Pierce was familiarizing himself with his temporary digs here Tuesday morning, having been forced to vacate his regular barn this month in order to accommodate the anticipated influx of European horses for Canadian International Day, Oct. 23.

Pierce normally shares a barn with trainer Josie Carroll, who took a turn at yielding her barn space to the European shippers last fall.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Gathering Storm seemed ideally placed to win a turf sprint at Del Mar on Aug. 22. But in a roughly run race, she had trouble in early stretch and emerged with a cut on her leg that required medical attention.

Wednesday, all that can be forgotten if Gathering Storm can win a $42,000 allowance race for fillies and mares over about 6 1/2 furlongs at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting.

will be favored in a race that has drawn an oversubscribed field of 14. The race will have a safety limit of 12 runners.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Lacking a definitive leader, Southern California sprinters have taken turns beating one another this year. The trend will not change in Saturday's $250,000 Ancient Title Breeders' Cup Handicap at Oak Tree at Santa Anita.

Each of the six probable starters - Bear in the Woods, Bilo, Captain Squire, Gotaghostofachance, McCann's Mojave, and Zanzibar - lacks a graded stakes win in 2005.