SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - If you liked the show Flower Alley and Bellamy Road put on in Saturday's Travers, then you'll want to follow them to Belmont Park for the Jockey Club Gold Cup on Oct. 1.

Flower Alley beat Bellamy Road by 2 1/2 lengths in Saturday's , and both horses are now on the same schedule that will hopefully get them to the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Belmont on Oct. 29. Both Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Flower Alley, and Nick Zito, the trainer of Bellamy Road, have targeted the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup for their horse's final Breeders' Cup prep.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Steeplechase rider Matt McCarron, who broke his left arm in a spill in the first race of the Saratoga meet, has made a quick recovery and will be back aboard his best mount, Hirapour, in Wednesday's Grade 1 New York Turf Writers Cup Handicap.

, last year's Eclipse Award-winning steeplechase horse, leads a field of nine as the 158-pound highweight in the premier steeplechase race of the meet. The Turf Writers Cup is the second race on the card and follows a steeplechase allowance race.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - While it is more likely that Lost in the Fog will simply train up to the Breeders' Cup Sprint, trainer Greg Gilchrist opened the door a crack to run his undefeated 3-year-old sprinter against older horses in the Grade 1 Vosburgh at Belmont Park on Oct. 1.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Alinghi, a multiple Group 1 winner in Australia, did not disappoint in her North American debut Monday.

Alinghi, sent off as the 9-10 favorite in an 11-horse field, won the Grade 3 for fillies and mares by 1 1/4 lengths over a turf course labeled good. She covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:40.30 before a crowd of 12,376. Que Puntual, second in the Grade 1 Diana in her last start, was second, and Stupendous Miss finished a neck back in third. Alinghi paid $3.80 to win and was part of a $23.80 exacta.

DEL MAR, Calif. - For the past two months, as jockey Tyler Baze went through an extended drought that left him far behind in the Del Mar standings, there were whispers that Baze was struggling with more than the frustration of not winning. The catharsis apparently began Sunday, when Baze cried freely after breaking out of a two-week, 62-race losing streak, with two victories, including the aboard Leprechaun Kid.

DEL MAR, Calif. - When trainer Wesley Ward purchased the 2-year-old In Excess filly R Lucky Strike for $18,000 at a sale at Barretts in May, he phoned some longtime owners of his and put them to a test.

"I didn't tell them her breeding or how fast she had worked," Ward said Monday. "I just said, 'It's $4,500 for 25 percent. Are you in?' Each one said, 'I'm in.' "

Why the gamesmanship?

"I just wanted to see if they trusted me. Blind trust," Ward said, laughing.

DEL MAR, Calif. - In the past year, trainer Jeff Mullins has gone from being the hottest trainer on the circuit, to a lightning rod for controversy based on both a positive test for bicarbonates and intemperate comments attributed to him by a local columnist, to being the hottest trainer on the circuit. Heading into the final week of the Del Mar meet, Mullins leads the trainer standings, and captured last Saturday's Del Mar Debutante with Wild Fit.

CHICAGO - More than $6.3 million was bet on the Arlington races Saturday. The racing office has been on a roll, the programs here last week packed with entries, and this week is starting out similarly, with more than 90 horses entered on Wednesday's nine-race card.

Most surprising has been the turnout in higher-end allowance races, which typically struggle to attract decent-sized fields. Wednesday's featured eighth race, a third-level turf allowance with a $62,500 claiming option, drew a field of 11, with two more entered main-track-only.

CHICAGO - Fifteen Rounds broke from the rail, was pinned on the rail, and had to run hard just about every step of the Arlington Breeders' Cup Sprint, which he won by a neck Saturday. It was the sort of gut-wrenching effort that can send a horse reeling for days, even weeks. But Fifteen Rounds has seemed nothing like a gutted racehorse in the two mornings since the biggest win of his roller-coaster career.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Coastal Fortress got a late start to her campaign and could be poised to reach her peak in Wednesday's $125,000 Eternal Search Stakes at Woodbine.

Coastal Fortress captured the restricted South Ocean Stakes at 1 1/16 miles in November to close her 2-year-old season. Trainer Barb Minshall then put Coastal Fortress away for the winter, believing everything was okay with her. But Coastal Fortress came up with an ankle problem early this year, a setback that led to her absence from several lucrative early season stakes.