AUBURN, Wash. - Strollin Slew, a bang-up third to Secret Corsage and Karis Macaw in the $100,000 Emerald Breeders' Cup Distaff on Longacres Mile Day, Aug. 21, dips into the $40,000 optional claiming ranks to take on seven rivals in Friday's one-mile feature at Emerald Downs.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - Friday's allowance feature, for nonwinners of a race "other than" since the meeting began, drew seven fillies and mares, most of whom are trying to jump-start once-promising careers. The 1 1/16-mile affair on the main track carries a $29,000 purse, with another $6,900 available to the Louisiana-breds Young Emotions and Gypsy Pole E Style.

Counterfeit Gold and Hosanna Hit will head the large fields expected Saturday night for two of Retama Park's richest stakes, the $100,000 El Joven and the $100,000 La Senorita. The races are for 2-year-olds at one mile on turf, with the El Joven for colts and geldings and the La Senorita for fillies. The races will be part of the second richest card of the meet, behind Texas Hall of Fame Day on Oct. 1.

Jareth Loveberry rode his first career winner Monday evening, when he snuck through on the rail with Clear for Take Off in the third race, a six-furlong claimer. Loveberry, an 18-year-old who started riding earlier this month, had the lead at the top of the stretch and rode steady to hold on by a half-length. Clear for Take Off, owned by Mark Ely and conditioned by Harold Schooley, paid $10.40 for the win.

Racing went on as scheduled here in Lafayette, La., Monday evening, but more than a few people's thoughts were with the New Orleans area, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Lafayette, La. is about 130 miles west of New Orleans.

A host of turf stakes winners from around the Midwest are under consideration for the $125,000 DeBartolo Memorial Breeders' Cup at Remington Park on Monday, including defending champ Major Rhythm. A 1 1/8-mile race, the DeBartolo is the richest turf race of the meet, and it will be supported by two other stakes, the $40,000 Ricks Memorial for fillies and mares on turf and the $40,000 Clever Trevor Juvenile.

There is a special first post of 2:30 p.m. Central on Monday.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Racing resumes at Bay Meadows on Friday with a solid card that starts off a big holiday weekend.

Seven fillies and mares meet in the day's feature, a one-mile first-level allowance race.

Also on the card is a 5 1/2-furlong starter allowance race for 2-year-old fillies and a 1 1/16-mile turf race for maidens.

Sun Valley Anna appears the one to beat in the feature. A 5-year-old mare, she has won 8 of 29 starts and is 4 for 7 over the Bay Meadows track, including a victory in a $25,000 claimer at the Bay Meadows Fair in her last start.

The Three County Fair at Northampton, Mass., opens Friday for a seven-day run with an emphasis on the quaint traditions of the 188-year-old fixture.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Monday's Niagara Breeders' Cup Handicap, with a purse of $300,000, is the most lucrative race on Woodbine's stakes-filled long weekend.

And one trainer with his eye on that prize is Nick Gonzalez, who will saddle Demeteor for the first time in the Grade 2 Niagara at 1 1/2 miles on turf.

Demeteor, a Kentucky-bred 6-year-old, is owned by Kenneth Hoffman, who trained the gelding through the first 20 starts of his career. About a month ago, Hoffman sent Demeteor here to Gonzalez, a longtime friend and winter neighbor in the Ocala, Fla., area.

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Arctic Taliyah should go postward as the odds-on favorite and could cement her claim to divisional honors at Marquis Downs in Friday's $6,000 Duchess Handicap for 3-year-old fillies.

A winner of three races in 2005, Arctic Taliyah faces just four others - three of whom are maidens - in the one-mile Duchess, which is the last stakes of the meeting for the division.