DEL MAR, Calif. - Trainer Adam Kitchingman did not get far on the path leading to winner's circle after Top Money's win in Thursday's fifth race at Del Mar before he was stopped by friends and other trainers.

A few offered a handshake, others a hug to Kitchingman, whose eyes welled with tears.

The win came on a day when Kitchingman returned to Del Mar for the first time since the death of his wife, Vikki, from cancer on July 23. She was 34.

"I've got a lot of support from people at the track," said Kitchingman, who will turn 30 next week.

EDMONTON, Alberta - A field of eight 2-year-old fillies will experience their first stakes in the 25th running of the six-furlong Princess Margaret at Northlands Sunday afternoon.

Each will carry 117 pounds under the allowance conditions of the $40,000 feature.

All are winners, except for Nessarose, and she was beaten only a neck by the colt, Poor Iggy, in her only start.

Nessarose, coupled with Miss Venturous trained by Greg Tracy, and Rumbeau Rumpus are the only fillies to have raced 5 1/2 furlongs. The others are stretching out from 3 1/2 furlongs.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Rick Kamps is having a successful meet with his moderately sized stable, winning eight races from just 29 starts. Over the last couple of years Kamps has also won with half of the horses that recently moved to his barn, and that number would have been higher if Key to the Point and St. Cajetan, who both nearly won while making their first start for Kamps last weekend.

It might be worth considering those facts when trying to figure out the winner of Sunday's sixth race at Hastings, an $8,000 claiming sprint for fillies and mares.

AUBURN, Wash. - Queenledo, who was disqualified from second in last month's Angie C. Stakes for interfering with Rosieontop, will meet Rosieontop again Sunday in the $40,000 Knights Choice Stakes at Emerald Downs.

The Knights Choice will be run at 6 1/2 furlongs.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens has enjoyed many great days at Saratoga. Friday wasn't one of them.

With the track fast for the first time in a week, Jerkens decided to give Medallist his first test around two turns in a one-mile workout over the main track. Breaking off from the mile pole - located on the clubhouse turn - Medallist, with jockey Jorge Chavez up, went too fast early and too slow late in a one-mile move timed in 1:41.04.

DEL MAR, Calif. - It's not around the corner, but it's not exactly like falling over a cliff, either. A trip to Dubai from California is a daunting trip, but one that numerous horses trained by Richard Mandella have made. None, however, was more successful than Pleasantly Perfect, who won the Dubai World Cup in March.

On Sunday, in Del Mar's San Diego Handicap, Pleasantly Perfect will make his first start since returning from Dubai, and put to test the continued debate among horsemen and handicappers over how horses react after the Dubai.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Smoke Smoke Smoke has two wins and a stakes victory, but that does not necessarily make him a better horse than Toliver, who has started only once. What Toliver did was smoke a Churchill Downs maiden field in his career debut, and the meeting between these two 2-year-old colts alone makes Sunday's $50,000 Honest Pleasure Stakes worth watching.

Island Sand, winner of the Grade 1 Acorn and the Kentucky Oaks runner-up, has rejoined trainer Larry Jones's barn at Ellis Park following a second surgery to correct an entrapped epiglottis.

Island Sand will not run this summer at Ellis Park, or elsewhere. Because she missed weeks of training, the major summer stakes races are no longer options, Jones said. If Island Sand trains well following the latest surgery, Jones would like to give her one successful fall race to prepare for the Breeders' Cup Distaff.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - After watching Lion Heart train Friday morning in Saratoga, trainer Patrick Biancone is looking forward to running the Kentucky Derby runner-up in Monmouth Park's Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational on Aug. 8.

Lion Heart, winner of Monmouth's Grade 3 Long Branch Stakes last out, blazed five furlongs in 58.52 seconds early Friday morning over the Saratoga main track. It was the first work of the day and the fastest of 60 recorded at the distance. Clockers timed Lion Heart galloping out six furlongs in 1:11.60 and seven furlongs in 1:26.

MIAMI - A week ago, trainer Joe Waunsch was planning on avoiding the big guns in Florida's 2-year-old division this summer with his juvenile sensation Devils Disciple, opting instead to take an easier route that would include the $200,000 Cradle Stakes, a Grade 3, 1 1/16-mile race at River Downs on Sept. 6.