Royal Saint has breezed through his conditions this meet at Louisiana Downs, and on Monday he will attempt to give his trainer, Cole Norman, a fourth win in the $50,000 Prelude Stakes. The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds is the local prep for the Grade 2, $750,000 Super Derby.

Norman won last year's Prelude with South Africa, and also captured the race in 1999 with Brassy Wells and in 1998 with Code Six.

"This is our fourth Prelude we're going after, and I think this is my best shot," said Norman.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Gold Strike, who followed up her convincing win in the Labatt Woodbine Oaks with a valiant third-place finish in the Queen's Plate, will not race again this season.

Given a brief freshening following the June 26 Queen's Plate, Gold Strike had been aiming for the $125,000 La Lorgnette, a 1 1/16-mile stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Sept. 24 at Woodbine. But she pulled a muscle in a workout after the Plate, trainer Reade Baker said, and the injury has not fully healed.

Historic Fair Grounds Race Course, located in the heart of New Orleans, was not spared the heavy damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina.

The Fair Grounds property was inundated with water, and a section of the roof in the grandstand was lifted off by the storm's powerful winds. The area around the grandstand and offtrack betting and video poker building was strewn with debris, and there appeared to be other damage to the grandstand.

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.