ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The quirky Mona Rose seeks to repeat last year's success in the $328,500 Dance Smartly Handicap on Saturday at Woodbine.

Mona Rose notched her first stakes in the 2004 Dance Smartly, at a time when she began to blossom for trainer Earl Barnett. In her June 4 seasonal debut in the Grade 2 Nassau Stakes, she finished a troubled third in her first start under jockey Todd Kabel.

The allowance prep for the Dance Smartly failed to fill, and Barnett said he's concerned that Mona Rosa has had just one start this year.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Run the 2005 Round Table Stakes 10 times, and you might come up with six different winners. If parity is what you look for in a horse race, tune into Arlington Park on Saturday afternoon.

Nine horses were entered in the 1 1/8-mile, $100,000 Round Table, Arlington's premier dirt race for 3-year-olds. It's a nice number with decent quality considering these midsummer months are cluttered with various derbies throwing money around like clover.

As for picking the winner, well, that is another story altogether.

As a deep closer, Naughty New Yorker needs a fast pace to make his late kick effective. He got an ideal setup three weeks ago in the Mike Lee Stakes, but faces the prospect of a different pace scenario and far more traffic in Saturday's $150,000 New York Derby at Finger Lakes.

The 1 1/16-mile derby, restricted to New York-bred 3-year-olds, is the second leg of the OTBs' Big Apple Triple. If Naughty New York Yorker can add the derby to his Mike Lee score, he would be in line to collect a $250,000 bonus by winning the Albany Handicap at Saratoga on Aug. 24.

MIAMI - Trainer Marty Wolfson and jockey Eddie Castro should have themselves a good day Saturday at Calder - all within a 30-minute span.

Wolfson and Castro will team up with prohibitive favorite Pampered Princess in the $75,000 Nancy's Glitter Handicap in the seventh race and then return with Covincing, who appears to have optional claiming company over a similar barrel in race 8.

EAST BOSTON - After Senor Ladd was crowned horse of the year by the New England Turf Writers Association last week, Runnymede Farm in North Hampton, N.H., could boast about being the home of three of the region's champions, joining former horses of the year Mom's Command and Gander.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Gamblers Slew, who has thrived on the turf course here this year, will be looking to repel three invaders as the 119-pound highweight here in Saturday's Toronto Cup.

The $161,250 Toronto Cup, an open 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds, has attracted a field of five, including Chatham Strait from Kentucky and the Maryland-based Bestowed and T.D. Vance.

"This is a stepping-stone, to see what we have," said Jody Hammett, who trains Gamblers Slew for Herbert Chambers. "I don't think we've seen his whole potential yet."

FORT ERIE, Ontario - Dan Mooney, who operates as Huntington Stud Farm Corp., went to the 2003 Keeneland September yearling sale and bought just two Canadian-bred colts, one for $15,000 and the other for $10,000.

On Sunday, both horses - Out From Africa and Stephen's Gift - will take on Queen's Plate victor Wild Desert in the six-horse, $500,000 Prince of Wales at Fort Erie.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - The $40,000 R.C. Anderson Stakes on Saturday at Assiniboia Downs, for 3-year-old fillies bred in Manitoba, may come down to who gets the mile distance. All but two in the field will be trying a route of ground for the first time.

Chilean import Isola Piu Bella and the speedy Kentucky shipper Two Trail Sioux head a group of six graded stakes winners entered Wednesday for this weekend's Delaware Handicap.

A track-record purse of $1 million lured 12 older fillies and mares for the 68th running of the 1 1/4-mile Del Cap, the biggest field since 13 horses ran in 1999.

Both the , which goes as race 11 at 5:44 p.m. Eastern, and the Grade 3, $300,000 Leonard Richards Stakes for 3-year-olds (race 10, 5:13 p.m.) will be televised on ESPN2.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - In the six years since the was first run at Canterbury Park, Scott Lake has become a veritable big-timer in North American racing, habitually ranking among the winningest trainers while plying his trade at major-league tracks such as Belmont Park and Gulfstream Park.