VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Peter Stephen has won races at a high percentage throughout his career, and part of the reason is his patience. He rarely runs a horse out of line, and if the right spot isn't available for a particular horse, he's willing to wait until a race comes up that suits him.

For the past few weeks, Stephen has been trying to find a race for Columbia Moon. After entering the promising 4-year-old in optional races that didn't fill, Stephen finally ran out of patience, and he has entered Columbia Moon in a non-conditioned allowance race Sunday.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - There is more than $650,000 at stake Saturday in the seventh annual .

For the men and women who have converged on Canterbury Park in suburban Minneapolis, there is the opportunity to prove to the racing public that there are capable horsemen out there besides guys named Frankel, Pletcher, or Dutrow.

There also is the matter of regional pride, as horses have come from a wide range of racing circuits for the seven-race series.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Horseplayers are constantly clamoring for big fields of quality horses. The , the annual series to be run Saturday at Canterbury Park, has been known to satisfy those demands, and although several races on the Claiming Crown undercard drew short fields, that certainly wasn't the case with the second-richest race of the day, the $125,000 Emerald.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Beverly Fowler has had plenty of time to think about what might unfold when the is run Saturday at Canterbury Park.

Fowler, aside her longtime friend, Donna Holmes, rode for 17 hours Tuesday in a truck pulling a horse van from Louisiana.

"We left Bossier City at 5 in the morning and got here at about 10 p.m.," said Fowler.

Watching your horse surrender a clear lead as the 1-5 favorite in her final prep for a $500,000 stakes isn't exactly a confidence builder, but trainer H. Graham Motion remains optimistic that the 3-year-old filly can make amends for that disappointing defeat when she runs in Saturday's Grade 2 Delaware Oaks at 1 1/16 miles.

The $5 million Grand Slam of Grass was not a motivating factor in trainer Todd Pletcher's decision to run English Channel in the Grade 3, $750,000 on Saturday, the biggest day of the year at Colonial Downs.

English Channel has already won the Colonial Turf Cup, the first of four races in the series. A victory in the Virginia Derby would move him halfway toward claiming the guaranteed $5 million in purse and bonus money for a sweep.

Trainer Todd Pletcher intends to be in Lake Tahoe this weekend to attend his brother-in-law's wedding. No one will fault Pletcher if he steps away from the reception for a few minutes to sneak in a quick phone call back East to find out the results of a couple of big horse races.

While Pletcher is away, his assistants will saddle heavy favorite English Channel in the Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs and Honey Ryder, the favorite for Saturday's $300,000 Robert G. Dick Memorial Breeders' Cup Handicap at Delaware Park.

Kitten's Joy is preparing for the Arlington Million and is taking a pass Saturday. So are Grade 1 winners Good Reward, Magistretti, and Meteor Storm. All of which means that Saturday's Grade 2 Bowling Green Handicap at Belmont Park is an opportunity for someone new to grab the spotlight, and Relaxed Gesture - based on his runner-up finish in the Grade 1 Manhattan last month - looks like he might be that someone.

Seven of the eight 3-year-olds in the field for Saturday's Grade 3 Long Branch Stakes at Monmouth Park have never won an open stakes. They will face a tall task defeating the race's lone stakes winner, Park Avenue Ball.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Surf Cat, the winner of the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park on July 9, will return in the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 7 or the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 21, trainer Bruce Headley said Thursday.

Headley is debating whether to ship Surf Cat out of Southern California for the first time to start at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, or to stay home and try older horses for the first time in the Pacific Classic.