ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Even though they finished third in last year's Atto Mile, Royal Regalia and trainer Justin Nixon still have something to prove in Sunday's renewal of the Grade 1 grass race.

Nixon and Royal Regalia have always seemed like an unlikely tandem to contend for a Grade 1 victory. Royal Regalia didn't win a race until he was 5, and that maiden victory came at Tampa Bay Downs. He has never won a graded stakes. Nixon's first winner came in a $2,500 claiming race at Penn National in 1996, and he has only two stakes wins in his 163 career victories.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Early September is always a hectic time for trainer Dale Romans. He stays busy when returning home from Saratoga, reconsolidating his huge stable and searching for future stars at the Keeneland yearling sales.

Of course, some things differ year to year. While recently involved in drafting revised language to the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority's new equine medication rules, Romans also withheld his entries from Turfway Park throughout opening week.

MIAMI - After spending the summer at Saratoga, trainer Ralph Ziadie will be piling up the frequent flier miles this fall, splitting time between Calder and Belmont Park.

Ziadie kept some members of his stable in New York for Belmont Park's fall championship meeting, including Grade 1 winner Silver Wagon - with an eye toward the Breeders' Cup Sprint on Oct. 29.

CHICAGO - Trainer Tom Proctor would have loved to put Therecomesatiger's unbeaten record on the line sometime in the last few weeks at Arlington Park, but there was no place to do it, not until the featured fifth race here Thursday. That is where Therecomesatiger swings back into action for the first time since July 24, when he won an entry-level turf allowance race by four lengths.

"I wanted to run him anywhere, dirt, turf, but didn't want to stretch him to a mile and an eighth," Proctor said. "He's been ready to go for a while now."

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Thursday's first-level allow-ance feature at Bay Meadows is a mix of comebackers and claiming types with sharp current form.

is a stakes-placed 3-year-old with potential. He's making his first start in more than two months, meeting older for the first time after running second against his own age group in a first-level allowance race at Pleasanton.

Trainer James Hodges has won with 31 percent of his starters this meet at Louisiana Downs, and on Saturday plans to start four horses in three of the 13 restricted stakes that will make up the track's $1 million Breeders' Festival.

Hodges has top Louisiana-bred sprinter Zarb's Dahar for the $75,000 Cajun; the streaking Chip Hunter and the stakes-placed Little Happy for the $100,000 Shiskabob; and Miriam L for the $100,000 Louisiana Breeders' Oaks.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Stakes winner Bold Grenadier drops into an inviting spot in Thursday's third race at Woodbine, a $62,500 claimer for 3-year-olds. The six-furlong dash has lured a field of seven and has a purse of $53,600.

POMONA, Calif. - Officials at Fairplex Park are preparing for a gross pick 6 pool that could reach $1 million when racing resumes Wednesday at the Los Angeles County Fair, where a two-day carryover has swollen to $184,170.

A revised racing schedule this season - Tuesdays are dark - has given pick 6 bettors a chance to replenish bankrolls and prepare for a competitive Wednesday card on which there are no obvious singles. An estimated $700,000 to $1 million in "fresh money" will be wagered on the pick 6.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - A to the Z and Vanderlin, the two invaders already on the grounds for Sunday's Atto Mile, both breezed five furlongs over Woodbine's E.P. Taylor turf course over the weekend.

As of Monday morning, a field of 11 was in store for the Atto Mile, a Grade 1, $1 million turf race for 3-year-olds and up.

Leroidesanimaux and Artie Schiller, both Grade 1 winners based in New York, are the leading candidates.

Perhaps the only bad news about the 12th Kentucky Cup Classic is that no marquee horses are scheduled to run Saturday in the $350,000 race at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

Otherwise, it's all good.

The Classic field is shaping up as the biggest in race history. Big-name jockeys such as Gary Stevens, Patrick Valenzuela, and Rafael Bejarano will be named to ride in it. There are not many major races elsewhere Saturday in North America to overshadow it. All the feedback on the new Polytrack surface has been positive, and the weather forecast for Saturday is ideal.