GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Perfect Drift won't be following the crowd to the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic. He is expected to be the lone starter in the field vanning - rather than flying - to Texas and is scheduled to leave his Kentucky base Sunday and arrive at Lone Star Park early in the morning on Monday, said his trainer, Murray Johnson.

Johnson estimated the trip was about 800 miles and would take between 16 and 17 hours. He said Pat Day will ride Perfect Drift if Azeri runs in the Distaff. If Azeri's connections opt for the Classic, Kent Desormeaux will ride Perfect Drift.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - McDynamo left an indelible image of power and grace with his 15 1/4-length romp in last year's Breeders' Cup Steeplechase.

The performance wowed the estimated crowd of 40,000 at the Far Hills Races and convinced the Eclipse Award voters to crown him champion jumper.

McDynamo, 7, returns to Far Hills to defend his title Saturday afternoon under very different circumstances.

EAST BOSTON, Mass. - The Massachusetts state breeding program has scratched together $120,000 for four statebred races to help make the Saturdays in November at Suffolk Downs a little more interesting.

Starting Nov. 6, there will be a $40,000 stakes race added to each Saturday card over the final four weeks of the 2004 season, which ends Nov. 27. Two will be for 3-year-olds and the other two will be for 2-year-olds, with both age groups getting a race just for fillies and another open to colts, geldings, and fillies.

CHICAGO - The Summertime Promise Stakes might have been slotted in the wrong season, but the overnight grass stakes could be just the right spot for a rising horse like Atlantic Frost.

"A lot of these fillies just seem to do a lot better in the fall, and I really think she is," said trainer Mickey Goldfine.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Chips Are Down was a disappointment for trainer Bob Baffert during the Del Mar meeting earlier this year. But an impressive maiden victory by Chips Are Down at Santa Anita earlier this month has Baffert changing his mind.

"I had horses that didn't like Del Mar. He was one of those," Baffert said. "When I got him here, he was a different horse."

Chips Are Down won a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs on Oct. 2, and on Saturday Chips Are Down makes his stakes debut in the $75,000 Sunny Slope Stakes for 2-year-olds at six furlongs.

ELMONT, N.Y. - For the past 10 years in the fall at Belmont Park, New York breeders and owners have showcased their best New York-breds on a racing program that features seven stakes, worth a total of $1 million.

Saturday's New York Showcase Day has evolved into the equivalent of the Breeders' Cup for horses foaled in the Empire State and their connections.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Bruce Levine believes Clever Electrician has won his last two starts despite playing his opponent's game. In Saturday's $125,000 Hudson Handicap at Belmont Park, Levine said he sees a scenario where his horse can play his own game.

ELMONT, N.Y. - A slow start on a day when speed was good may have compromised Pelham Bay when she ran fifth in the Joseph Gimma Stakes on Oct. 3.

Her connections are hoping that with a cleaner break, a fairer racing surface, and an extra furlong, Pelham Bay could reverse her fortunes in Saturday's $100,000 Maid of the Mist Stakes for New York-bred 2-year-old fillies.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Perhaps Sugar Punch can ease the pain of New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, whose team lost the American League pennant on Wednesday to the Boston Red Sox.

Torre co-owns Sugar Punch, who is among the main contenders in Saturday's $125,000 Iroquois at Belmont Park for New York-bred fillies and mares. Seven entered the seven-furlong race.

On opening day of the fall meet at Belmont Park, Buzz Song romped to a 7 3/4-length victory as the 3-5 favorite in a one-mile maiden race. She may be an even shorter price Saturday when facing five other 2-year-old fillies in the $100,000 Blue Hen Stakes at Delaware Park.

Buzz Song, who is trained by Todd Pletcher, has several factors in her favor in the 1 1/16-mile race:

* Her 74 Beyer Speed Figure is nearly 30 points higher than the next-best route number of any of her opponents.