VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The $250,000 British Columbia Derby is shaping up to be quite a race. The field is so deep that the winner of the Richmond Derby Trial and arguably the best of the local 3-year-olds, Rules of War, isn't going to have enough earnings to make it into the race.

A total of 26 horses have been nominated, and the top 12 money-earners will get to start. At least 12 confirmed starters have more earnings than Rules of War, and unless there's a change before Sept. 26, he will have to run in the Derby Consolation.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Ticker Tape, one of the two favorites in the featured Pucker Up Stakes, will not be the only Grade 1 winner racing Saturday at Arlington. Honor in War, who won the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs in the spring of 2003, is among the 10 horses entered in the John Henry, a $42,000 overnight stakes at 1 1/16 miles on grass.

The turf racing void in Kentucky - in place since Turfway Park, an all-dirt track, began its meet Sept. 8 - will be filled beginning Saturday when Kentucky Downs opens.

A six-day, 44-race meet is scheduled over the next two weeks at Kentucky Downs, the country's only all-turf racetrack, located just north of the Tennessee border near the south-central Kentucky town of Franklin. While the highlight of the meet remains the $500,000 Kentucky Cup Turf Festival on Sept. 25, Saturday's opening-day card is also one of its best, with two of the four races being $40,000 stakes.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Frisky Spider will try to regain his winning form on the main track as the multiple-stakes-winning colt tops the field Saturday in the $60,000 City Zip Stakes for 3-year-olds at Monmouth Park.

Frisky Spider offers a double angle for handicappers - turf-to-dirt and long-to-short - as he cuts back from two turns to six furlongs.

won his turf debut in June with a gate-to-wire victory in Monmouth's one-mile Restoration Stakes. He was unable to sustain that speed in his next two outings, finishing fourth in the Choice and the Ocean Place Stakes at Monmouth.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - One of the most interesting - and, for handicappers, exasperating - aspects of 2-year-old stakes races is the improvement factor.

Last month's ugly duckling may have blossomed into a swan since last seen on the racetrack. The improvement factor can turn wide-open races on paper into runaways on the track and can turn heavy favorites on paper into also-rans.

Saturday's $55,000-added San Mateo Stakes at six furlongs will give handicappers a chance to assess the progress of six 2-year-olds.

MIAMI - Tchula Miss has won three stakes in her 19-race career, including the Golden Or Stakes just three weeks ago. She regressed when she returned on only three weeks' rest following each of her first two stakes wins. The question remains whether she will follow that same pattern when she starts among the favorites in Saturday's $75,000 U Can Do It Handicap at Calder.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Atto Mile gained two new faces Thursday, as locally based My Lucky Strike and Surging Free joined the lineup for Sunday's Grade 1, $1 million turf feature.

The field for the Atto Mile grew to nine after trainer John Cirillo scratched My Lucky Strike from an allowance race here Thursday to run there instead and trainer Mark Frostad elected to enter Surging River in addition to the likely Atto Mile favorite, Soaring Free.

Mission almost accomplished. Trainer Steve Asmussen said earlier this year he was saving Desert Darby for the $100,000 Texas Hall of Fame Stakes at Retama Park near San Antonio. The race will be held Saturday night, and Desert Darby will return from a five-month layoff for it. His mission now is to defeat six others, including stakes winners Rare Cure, Chauffe Au Rouge, and Classoffiftyseven.

No filly at Louisiana Downs has been able to get close to Happy Ticket sprinting this meet, and that would make handicapping the $50,000 Seneca on Saturday easy - if only the race were held on dirt around one turn.

Happy Ticket will be stretching out around two turns for the first time in the Seneca, and will also be making her turf debut. It is a nice spot for her to attempt to stretch her speed, as she will be facing straight 3-year-old fillies, all bred in Louisiana.

ALTOONA, Iowa - Shippers from Arlington Park have been prominent in stakes here all meeting and Saturday's $75,000 Prairie Meadows Oaks for 3-year-old fillies is no exception, as seven of the eight fillies made their last start in Chicago.

Of that group, My Time Now and Fly Away Angel, who both come out of the Grade 3 Arlington Breeders' Cup Oaks, appear to be the most capable of winning the 1 1/16-mile Prairie Meadows Oaks.