VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Favour for Joey looks like the one to beat in the feature race at Hastings Saturday, a $35,000 optional sprint for older horses that drew eight horses. Celt, who is one of the fastest horses on the grounds, has also been entered in the 6 1/2-furlong event.

EDMONTON, Alberta - Vancouver invader Hotenuforyoo can enhance his prospects for the Canadian Derby with a victory Saturday in the 1 1/16-mile Count Lathum at Northlands Park.

The 1 3/8-mile Canadian Derby, worth $300,000, will be run here Aug. 27.

Owned by Ole Nielsen and Tracy McCarthy, Hotenuforyoo will seek his second consecutive stakes triumph on Saturday in the $50,000 Count Lathum, which has attracted a full field of 12. Rickey Walcott has the return mount on Hotenuforyoo, a British Columbia-bred who won the 1 1/16-mile Ky Alta here July 16.

AUBURN, Wash. - Budding 3-year-old star The Great Face takes on nine older foes in Saturday's Emerald Downs feature, a six-furlong test to be run under $25,000 optional claiming conditions.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Multiple stakes winner Sun King was a late addition to the field for Sunday's Grade 1, $1 million at Monmouth Park when post positions were drawn Thursday.

Sun King joins seven other 3-year-olds for the 1 1/8-mile Haskell, the biggest race of the year in New Jersey. The Haskell will be part of an ESPN2 telecast from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

Roman Ruler, the recent winner of the Grade 2 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park, will be the likely favorite with Jerry Bailey set to ride from post 4.

DEL MAR, Calif. - In the last five years, there has been a remarkable contrast between Jerry Hollendorfer's results on the northern California circuit and at Del Mar.

It might be said that the first two races for Unbridled Danz were twins. Both were routes on the Arlington Park turf course, both resulted in victories from just off the pace by identical four-length margins, and both graded out with a Beyer Speed Figure in the 80's.

Horseplayers might now be wondering if triplets are in store. If so, Unbridled Danz, trained by Becky Maker, would have to be considered one of the main contenders Saturday when shipping in from Chicago for the $75,000 Audubon Oaks, the feature race at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky.

After a dismal Aqueduct meet, business-wise, things did not get much better for the New York Racing Association at Belmont Park, as attendance and handle suffered steep declines during the 60-day spring/summer meet that ended June 24.

Classic Photo and Vivid Photo, winners of their elimination heats, will start side by side Saturday afternoon in the $1.5 million Hambletonian for trotters at The Meadowlands Racetrack. The Hambletonian begins the biggest weekend in New Jersey racing, which culminates Sunday with the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.

Classic Photo, a winner of five straight, is the 6-5 morning-line favorite from post 5 in the richest renewal of the famed trotting stakes for 3-year-olds.

Vivid Photo, an upset winner last week, is the 7-2 second choice, starting from post 6.

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - Granite City, Ill., is exactly as unglamorous as it sounds. A workaday St. Louis suburb of some 30,000 residents, its most recognizable landmark is a large steel mill whose visible gaseous flames resemble super-sized Bunsen burners in the night sky.

When young Jeff Cooper and John Kabbendjian went looking for respite from their gritty hometown, they most often ended up at Fairmount Park. Shabby by the standards of most horseplayers, the track seemed downright regal to Cooper and Kabbendjian, whose love for the sport would only flourish.

The years 2003 and 2004 were banner ones for the Ohio-bred filly Oh So Easy, who racked up seven stakes wins, going short and long, on turf as well as dirt.

But the tide may be turning for Oh So Easy, who last month ran well below her best for the second time in her last three attempts in a statebred stakes. Rival horsemen, perhaps detecting vulnerability in the Ohio champion mare, needed no arm-twisting to fill the entry box for Saturday's $40,000 Ms. Southern Ohio Stakes at River Downs, which Oh So Easy will try to win for the second straight year.