BOSSIER CITY, La. - This weekend may look to be a lull before next Saturday's Grade 2, $750,000 Super Derby, but don't tell that to the participants in this Saturday's Razorback and Lady Razorback futurities. This year's editions, for 2-year-olds bred in Arkansas, are among the strongest in the 12-year history of the events.

CHICAGO - Crimped by a decision made last year by the Illinois Racing Board, Arlington Park concluded its 2005 race meet Sunday with handle and attendance figures similar to those posted in 2004.

ELMONT, N.Y. - A field of nine 3-year-olds entered Friday's $65,000 Subordination Stakes, and it's anyone's guess which one the crowd will make the favorite.

Scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the inner turf course, the Subordination is restricted to nonwinners of a stakes race on the grass, and it is wide open.

Trip handicappers are likely to be torn between Fishy Advice and Reel Legend.

POMONA, Calif. - The ambiguity surrounding the $100,000 Las Madrinas Handicap on Friday at Fairplex Park begins with 121-pound highweight Pickle.

is a graded stakes winner on turf, running on dirt in the Las Madrinas. "She works on dirt all the time," trainer Sandy Shulman said, while admitting that "working is not running."

Allswellthatnswell is a sprint stakes winner, running in a three-turn, 1 1/16-mile and a sixteenth route in the Las Madrinas. "If the pace is realistic, maybe she can keep running," trainer Don Warren said.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Wonder Where Stakes winner Silver Highlight will clash with the promising Irish-bred filly Stunning Rose in Friday's superb Woodbine feature, a 1 3/8-mile allowance on the grass.

After shipping here from England, Silver Highlight won her maiden July 31 in 1 1/4-mile Wonder Where, the third leg of the Canadian triple tiara. Invitational, the Wonder Where runner-up, came back for a five-length victory in allowance company, and the eighth-place finisher in that restricted race, Whiskey and Low, subsequently won the Eternal Search Stakes.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Feu Express, fresh off a win in the $66,000 CTHS Sales Stakes on Sept. 10, figures to be favored over four other 2-year-olds in the feature race at Hastings on Friday. The $50,000 optional race at 6 1/2 furlongs also drew Mighty Cahill, who won his debut by 11 1/4 lengths.

AUBURN, Wash. - Two-year-olds will take center stage at Emerald Downs on Friday when half of the eight-race card, including the feature, will be devoted to juveniles .

The seventh-race feature at 5 1/2 furlongs will match six 2-year-old fillies, each eligible to be claimed for $30,000 to $25,000.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Funny Cide's troubled 5-year-old season is over.

A recurring back problem has forced trainer Barclay Tagg to pull Funny Cide out of training for a minimum of 30 days. He will be pointed to a 6-year-old campaign.

MIAMI - Shady Woman has flirted with stakes success the past two seasons but despite some big efforts is still without a stakes victory on her resume. That situation could finally be rectified Friday when Shady Woman takes on six rivals, including the red-hot Mystical Beauty, in Calder's $40,000 Cinnamon Girl Stakes.

STICKNEY, Ill. - Driving without traffic by expressway it is 33 minutes from Arlington Park to Hawthorne Race Course. Aesthetically, they're about a light year apart. Grape arbors and suburban streets ring Arlington. One local highlight last spring at Hawthorne was a sunken barge being dredged up from an industrial shipping canal that lies a couple hundred yards from the track.