AUBURN, Wash. - Marva Jean and Sariano, the top two finishers in last month's Hastings Park Handicap here at six furlongs, will be rematched at 6 1/2 furlongs in Sunday's Washington State Legislators' Handicap for fillies and mares.

VANCOUVER, British Colum-bia - Hall Dancer will try to carry his speed around three turns for the first time in the $75,000 Burnaby Breeders' Cup at Hastings Sunday. The first middle-distance stakes for 3-year-olds, the 1 1/16-mile Burnaby drew eight horses.

CALGARY, Alberta - By most standards, trainer Red Smith has enjoyed a successful meet. But for Smith, the defending champion and a perennial contender for leading trainer, this spring ranks as a disappointment.

Smith has moved into the top 10 in the standings after an unusually slow start, and the big outfits of Greg Tracy and Ron Grieves were winning races from Day 1 of the spring session. Should Smith mount a late charge in defense of his title, it could start on Sunday when he has three live runners entered.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Ghostzapper will not make his next start in the $500,000 Suburban Handicap on July 2 and instead will be pointed to the $750,000 Whitney Handicap on Aug. 6 at Saratoga, trainer Bobby Frankel confirmed on Friday.

The Whitney could feature the top two finishers from last year's Breeders' Cup Classic, as the connections of Roses in May have targeted that race as well. Roses in May won the Whitney last year and took the Dubai World Cup earlier this year.

The horse who showed symptoms of strangles on the Belmont Park backstretch on May 27 does not have the contagious respiratory disease, New York Racing Association officials announced Friday. Furthermore, there is no evidence the disease is present on the backside at all.

Lady Libby, trained by Steve Kappes, was suspected of having strangles after she developed a fever and popped an abscess under her neck, a sign of swollen glands. Lady Libby was isolated from the general population on May 27 and was shipped to Cornell University the following day.

AUBURN, Wash. - Horsemen dread drawing the rail post, as is evident every year when they select their posts for the Triple Crown races. What is not so obvious to fans is why they dislike it so.

At most tracks and for most distances, the inside post accounts for more than its share of winners. In sprints at the current Emerald Downs meeting, for instance, 17 percent of the horses breaking from the inside have returned as winners - the best winning percentage of any post.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A month after arguably the best performance of her career, can end a long drought in stakes in Sunday's $100,000 Desert Stormer Handicap at Hollywood Park.

On May 7 at Churchill Downs, Puxa Saco finished third at 29-1 in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff Handicap at seven furlongs. The performance marked the third consecutive stakes in which she had been beaten less than a length.

Sunday's Grade 3 Desert Stormer could give Puxa Saco her first stakes win since the 2002 Moccasin Stakes, which was run over this track.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The ongoing nightmare of 2005 can end for trainer Jim Cassidy on Sunday.

Through Thursday, Cassidy has just 1 victory from 41 starters this year. Some of his pre-season hopes were dashed, and others have yet to work out.

Ticker Tape, a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation's outstanding turf female of 2004, has made only one start, finishing last of seven in the Comp USA Turf Mile at Churchill Downs on May 7. Some of Cassidy's European imports from late 2004 were sent to trainer Wally Dollase after a breakup with owner Jim Ford.

Trainer Eoin Harty might be a native of Ireland and a resident of Southern California, but he is at home in Texas. He won his first Lone Star Park stakes last Monday, when R Fast Lady made it three wins in a row with her victory in the $150,000 Stonerside.

Harty's only other stakes starter at the meet was Shamoan, who finished second in the Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Derby.

For Harty, successful invasions of Texas are nothing new. Harty is a former assistant to Bob Baffert, who has won just about all of the major stakes at Lone Star.

MIAMI - Nightmare Affair has never won a race on the turf, but the 4-year-old is in such good form that trainer Manny Azpurua is confident he will win Sunday's Blazing Sword whether the overnight stakes is run on the grass as planned or transferred to dirt.