SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - With Smuggler and Summerly out of Saturday's $750,000 Alabama, Spun Sugar has a sweet opportunity to win her first Grade 1 stakes.

Spun Sugar finished between Smuggler and Summerly in the Grade 1 Mother Goose. One month later, Spun Sugar finished behind both Smuggler and Summerly in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks. Saturday's Alabama was to have been another meeting of the trio, but an illness to Smuggler and an injury to Summerly will keep those two fillies out of the race.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A victory in last year's Yaddo Handicap helped propel Sabellina to a championship in the New York-bred female turf division. Her connections hope a repeat performance in the Yaddo can spur her on to another division title.

meets five other stakes winners in the tougher of two divisions of the Yaddo Handicap, run at 1 1/8 miles on the inner turf. Each division is worth $75,000. This marks the fifth time in the last 16 years that the Yaddo has been split.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Borrego has raced competitively with the best runners in the country for two seasons and has accumulated more than $850,000 in earnings. But even though he has finished second in races such as the Arkansas Derby, Louisiana Derby, and Hollywood Gold Cup, he has yet to win a stakes race, a record trainer Beau Greely hopes to change when Borrego competes in the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic on Sunday at Del Mar.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Mighty Beau can be forgiven for losing twice in England in June.

In an ambitious experiment, Mighty Beau was sent to the Royal Ascot meeting at York racecourse, where he finished fifth and 11th in two of the toughest turf sprints in the world.

Wednesday, Mighty Beau returns to more familiar surroundings when he makes his first start since June in the $75,000 Green Flash Handicap at five furlongs on turf at Del Mar.

Hawthorne Race Course, which opens a fall-winter meet on Sept. 23, has announced an across-the-board purse increase effective at the beginning of the track's race season.

Purses will be raised between $500 per race for lower-level claimers and maiden-claimers, and $2,000 per race for open maiden and allowance horses.

At last year's fall Hawthorne meet, maiden special weight races went for $26,000, so maidens this fall will run for $28,000. That is significantly higher than current purse values at Arlington, where a maiden race now is worth only $25,000.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Ronny Werner doesn't know when or where Flying Glitter will run next following her pacesetting score in Sunday's Grade 3, $200,000 for 3-year-old fillies.

The trainer does know she created a fresh range of options with the Oaks victory.

"She came out of it great," Werner said. "I wanted to see how the distance shaped up. That was a little bit of a question mark."

Flying Glitter handled the 1 1/16 miles just fine in posting her first two-turn victory.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainers Josie Carroll and Malcolm Pierce share Barn 39 here at Woodbine.

So, perhaps it was appropriate that Carroll and Pierce shared the spotlight here last weekend, winning for the two stakes features and each adding a lucrative allowance that featured stakes-caliber performances.

Carroll capped her weekend by sending out Edenwold to capture Sunday's $159,900 Vandal after watching Estevan score impressively under third-level allowance terms a day earlier.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - In a racing rarity, Vaganova remains at the same allowance condition following a stirring victory in Wednesday's Woodbine feature, a $62,500 optional claimer for fillies and mares.

Vaganova, a French import owned by Bill Diamant, won her maiden in her North American debut here in July 2003. She was subsequently sidelined for nearly two years, and was second when she returned to action in a June 12 allowance.

EDMONTON, Alberta - Like mother, like daughter.

Just as her dam, Wild Creek, did eight years ago, Wild Bender captured Alberta's premier stakes offering for 3-year-old fillies, the $100,000 Alberta Centennial, on Saturday.

Formerly known as the Sonoma Stakes but renamed for this year to mark the province's 100th birthday, the Alberta Centennial saw Rickey Walcott win his seventh stakes in less than two months of the Northlands meet. Walcott said that Wild Bender's trainer, Dale Saunders, asked him to change strategy for the race.

DEL MAR, Calif. - What a Song showed on Sunday why is the top-ranked 2-year-old in California.

Remaining unbeaten after three starts, What a Song ($3.60) showed remarkable poise to score an impressive victory in the $150,000 at Del Mar. Ridden by Victor Espinoza, What a Song finished 6 1-2 furlongs in 1:15.64, winning by 2 3-4 lengths over Bashert.

They were the first two finishers in the Hollywood Juvenile Championship last month.