POMONA, Calif. - Jockey Omar Figueroa is making the most of his opportunities at the Los Angeles County Fair - four of his first five wins were stakes, including another upset Thursday. Figueroa guided Kash Klip to a 5 1/2-length win in the $58,200 Bustles and Bows Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Fairplex Park. The fourth betting choice in the six-runner field, Kash Klip paid "only" $10.80.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Familiar rivals Coal Smudge and Stonewall Harris, the top two contenders and only multiple winners in Sunday's $41,000 J.W. Sifton Stakes, will line up beside each other at Assiniboia Downs.

Nine 3-year-old Manitoba-breds will contest the 1 1/8-mile feature.

Coal Smudge and Stonewall Harris have faced each other in their last six starts, with Stonewall Harris finishing ahead of Coal Smudge in five of those meetings.

Coal Smudge won the Manitoba Stakes here June 26, with Stonewall Harris second.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Jay's Wish has never been better, a fact that gives trainer Frank Costa confidence as the gelding gets his first stakes test Sunday in the $60,000 Friendly Lover Handicap at Monmouth Park.

The Friendly Lover at six furlongs attracted seven for the final stakes of the meet for New Jersey-bred horses and geldings.

Jay's Wish gets in light at 112 pounds with Michael Baze set to ride.

By November 2005, purses at Philadelphia Park will be $225,000 daily, thanks to advance payments made to the purse fund from the $18 million that slot machines in Pennsylvania are expected to produce during their first 18 months of operation.

That kind of money is a powerful lure to horsemen, especially those from states where purses are not slots-fueled, and could result in an influx of new trainers to the Keystone State.

Among those who thinks the time is ripe to begin racing at Philadelphia Park is Dale Capuano.

MIAMI - Be it ever so humble, there's certainly no place like home for Redoubled Miss.

Redoubled Miss, one of the leaders of the local filly and mare handicap division for the past several seasons, packed her bags and headed north this spring and did not return until late last month. She will make her first start since departing the area in Sunday's $40,000 Emergency Nurse Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile overnight event that serves as a prep for the $100,000 Shocker T. Handicap on Oct. 23.

They are coming from both coasts and the Midwest for the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby, which had eight probables as of Friday. The 1 1/8-mile race will be run at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La. on Saturday.

FLORENCE, Ky. - If it is purely a matter of numbers, the Kentucky Cup might have trouble living up to its lofty standard. With a mere 33 starters spread among five races, horseflesh certainly is in short supply for the 11th running of the $825,000 series.

FLORENCE, Ky. - For a Cleveland guy who long ago became a racing legend in northern California, Jerry Hollendorfer sure does have a thing for Kentucky.

More specifically, Hollendorfer adores Turfway Park, where he won the track's premier event, the Lane's End Stakes, with Event of the Year (1998) and Globalize (2000). In fact, Hollendorfer is so enamored with Kentucky that he probably will send a sizable string of horses to Turfway to compete here from late November to early April.

FLORENCE, Ky. - When Mayo on the Side has been good, she has been very good. She beat Azeri in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff on the Kentucky Derby undercard in May, and has been good enough in her 24-race career to win seven races and amass more than $550,000 in earnings.

But when is bad, she can be pretty bad. She has taken her lumps a couple of times this summer, including fourth-place finishes in the Chicago Breeders' Cup at Arlington Park and Go for Wand at Saratoga.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Heavy rains forecast here for the weekend and the allure of a $1 million purse in Sunday's Atto Mile at Woodbine combined to keep the field for Saturday's $200,000 Belmont Breeders' Cup Handicap light.