CHICAGO - The key to Sunday's $50,000 Claire Marine Stakes at Arlington is finding the horse best suited to the race's conditions, 1 1/2 miles on turf.

And good luck with that.

The Claire Marine, for fillies and mares, drew a field of eight, and the group collectively has made just three starts at 12 furlongs. New Dreams has two of them, and even won a 1 1/2- mile grass race in Brazil. But things are not going to be that simple.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - There aren't many bigger class drops than going from a Grade 1 event to a stakes for graduates of local yearling sales, which is what Mobil will do Sunday at Woodbine.

Mobil was entered in both the $128,750 Halton on turf and the $134,125 Elgin on dirt, which are two of six yearling sales stakes on the 11-race card. According to trainer Mike Keogh, Mobil will likely run in the nine-furlong Halton, a race he won last year in a canter.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Cool N Collective hasn't been based here since 2000, when he was trained by Reade Baker.

But Cool N Collective, a 7-year-old gelding who now is based at Monmouth Park with trainer Dennis Manning, has returned for the last two editions of the Elgin, finishing second on each occasion.

A 1 1/16-mile race for colts and geldings, 3 years old and up, the Elgin is one of six yearling sales stakes on Sunday's card.

Cool N Collective won the 2000 edition of the Elgin, as a 3-year-old, but was on the shelf at the time of the following year's running.

FORT ERIE, Ontario - Five runners, all of them maidens, make up the field for the $75,000 Juvenile Stakes here Sunday.

The six-furlong race is restricted to 2-year-old colts and geldings who were offered for sale at last year's open yearling sale or mixed sale at Woodbine.

Unless the three first-time starters in the race possess some talent, it appears that Chasing the Fox will be in for a walk in the park.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Northrnimprovement, the only winner in a field of seven, is the one to beat at Assiniboia Downs in Sunday's $25,000 North Dakota Futurity for 2-year-olds at six furlongs.

Trained by Chad Torevell, Northrnimprovement has raced four times. His win came two starts back in a restricted futurity at North Dakota Horse Park in Fargo on Aug. 8.

Most recently, Northrnimprovement finished fourth in the North Dakota Stallion Stakes here Aug. 22.

Northrnimprovement will race on Lasix for the first time as he breaks from the rail under Beth Butler.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Three sharp trainers bringing talented horses back off varying degrees of layoffs make for an intriguing edition of Saturday's $250,000 at Saratoga.

Michael Dickinson brings the Grade 1 winner A Huevo back off a 294-day layoff prompted by injury. Todd Pletcher saddles Strong Hope off a designed 96-day freshening. Bobby Frankel wheels Midas Eyes back just 10 days after he won a classified allowance race here. Frankel has entered two other horses returning from layoffs, including Toccet, a 2002 Eclipse Award finalist in the 2-year-old division.

Smok'n Frolic, a multiple graded-stakes-winning mare who earned more than $1.5 million, has been retired from racing, owner Cot Campbell announced Thursday. Smok'n Frolic will be sold at Keeneland's November Breeding Stock Sale. Three Chimneys Farm will be the consignor.

DEL MAR, Calif. - The last time Gary Stevens rode Fun House, the mare won her first stakes in the Grade 2 Buena Vista Handicap at Santa Anita in February.

They will be reunited in Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Palomar Breeders' Cup Handicap for fillies and mares over 1 1/16 miles on turf at Del Mar. Fun House will need help from her old friend Stevens to score a victory against a tough field.

DEL MAR, Calif. - A race-day detention barn that would quarantine horses from as many as three races per day could be in place by the start of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26, Santa Anita vice-president Chris McCarron told an ad-hoc security committee of racing officials on Thursday.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - When Wayne Catalano flew to Southern California three months ago to test-drive the 4-year-old filly Tamweel for a group of prospective purchasers, he liked what he saw and felt. He liked it a lot.

And so something like $200,000 changed hands, and Tamweel came to Chicago, where she sharply won two straight races, prompting her connections to think big - Breeders' Cup big.

Now, confusion has arisen. "I was thinking the Breeders' Cup was in October, not now," Catalano said Thursday.