Intercontinental ran the best race of her career last fall in the Matriarch Stakes. It was at one mile on turf, at Hollywood Park, similar conditions to what she will encounter on Sunday in the Grade 3, $200,000 Royal Heroine Stakes, which is why Intercontinental is a deserving favorite.

has won 3 times in 4 starts at a flat mile, the lone loss coming in her last race, the Just a Game at Belmont Park. Intercontinental was compromised by a wide trip and a sharp Sand Springs that afternoon, but trainer Bobby Frankel on Friday took some of the blame for her loss.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Churchill Downs is a massive place, and filling every nook and cranny would be virtually impossible.

Filling every niche in the track's stakes and overnight racing programs isn't easy either. In fact, since he was named Churchill racing secretary in 2002, Doug Bredar has sought to plug as many of those holes as possible, and the result has been five new stakes, each worth $100,000, as well as an ambitious overnight stakes program.

MIAMI - Madcap Escapade will carry highweight of 120 pounds when she takes on the undefeated Happy Ticket and Sensibly Chic in perhaps the best field of filly-and-mares sprinters to race anywhere this year in next Saturday's $500,000 Princess Rooney Handicap at Calder.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Cliff Berry for years has been one of the most dominant riders in Oklahoma, and that success has carried over to Texas. With just two weeks left in the Lone Star Park meet, Berry has a commanding lead in the jockey standings, having won 70 races through Thursday night for a 12-win lead over second-leading rider Roman Chapa.

For the 42-year-old Berry, the tone of his Lone Star meet was set opening night, when he won the first race of the meet, the $50,000 Premiere Stakes, aboard Rare Cure.

What appeared to be a gutsy claim in May now looks like a "gimme" as Swasti heads a field of 12 Minnesota-bred fillies and mares in the $40,000 Princess Elaine Stakes at Canterbury Park.

Marketable, a stakes winner in Ohio in 2004, has had a disappointing season this year, losing three of her four starts by at least 12 lengths.

Those races were on the dirt, however, and it is the talent she displayed in her other start, the Tomboy Stakes on the turf, which will make her a strong favorite to win the $40,000 Cincinnatian Stakes at River Downs.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - With more than two months separating the Old South Handicap in early June and the Sangue Handicap in mid-August, turf fillies and mares have limited opportunities to run at Louisiana Downs during the middle part of the summer. It is no wonder, then, that an optional claiming race on turf for fillies and mares Sunday drew such a strong cast.

Due to Win Again, third in the Old South and winless since capturing the River Cities here last fall, is the class of Sunday's field.

PLEASANTON, Calif. - Trainer Jeff Bonde always weighs his options carefully.

So when he decided to run the filly Devons Smokin against colts in Sunday's $50,000 Everett Nevin Alameda County Futurity instead of Saturday's 2-year-old filly stakes here, the Juan Gonzalez, it was a carefully thought-out decision.

"I entered because it was a Cal-bred race with a higher purse," Bonde said. "I didn't see a lot of difference between the colts and fillies that were nominated, and this gave her an extra day since her last race," a maiden win on June 19 at Golden Gate Fields.

AUBURN, Wash. - Just about everybody at Emerald Downs considers Karis Makaw the best route runner in the local filly and mare division.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Carl Lausten is hoping that Timeless Passion will emerge from Sunday's Jim Coleman Province Stakes as a legitimate prospect for the Grade 3, $250,000 British Columbia Derby. The derby won't be run until Sept. 24 but the Jim Coleman Province should help separate the contenders from the pretenders.

Lausten said he has felt all along that Timeless Passion belongs among the elite at Hastings.