SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Stanley Hough and owner Joyce Robsham are coming off an excellent Belmont Park spring meet and will try to keep that momentum going Wednesday at Saratoga with Broadway Gold in the Grade 2 Schuylerville, the opening-day feature.

Broadway Gold is one of four horses owned by Robsham and trained by Hough who won or placed in a stakes during Belmont's spring meet. At the 61-day stand, Robsham led all owners in number of wins, with 9 from

48 starters. Her purse earnings of $470,750 placed her fifth in the money-won category.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Even with the elimination of two stakes races this year, the heart and soul of the Saratoga meet remains the 2-year-old division.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Since moving his tack to New York five years ago, jockey Edgar Prado no longer wins the most races. He just wins many of the races that matter most.

Since becoming a New York rider in July 1999, Prado has won 29 Grade 1 races - including the Belmont Stakes twice - and 168 stakes overall. He enters his sixth year on the New York circuit riding in perhaps the best form of his career.

DEL MAR, Calif. - With jockey Alex Solis out at least through the fall with a fractured back and ribs and facing the possibility of surgery, trainer Richard Mandella has secured jockey Jerry Bailey to ride Pleasantly Perfect in two races over the next three months.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - The Sonoma County Fair, northern California's version of Del Mar, opens a 12-day run Wednesday.

Located 90 minutes north of the San Francisco Bay Area, the fair is far enough removed from the metropolitan region to develop a hometown, festive flavor.

It is located in a popular vacation area near the Pacific Coast, with the Russian River, wineries, and championship-caliber golf courses nearby.

Those attractions bring in owners, trainers, and high-quality horses, not to mention fans, who fill the grandstand every day of the meet.

A significant decrease in wagering has caused Ellis Park officials to eliminate three stakes and reduce overnight purses by 5 percent, effective Wednesday and continuing through closing day, Sept. 6.

The canceled stakes are the $75,000 Governor's Handicap, which had been scheduled for Aug. 28; the $100,000 Dade Turf Classic, a 1 1/16-mile race originally set for Sept. 4; and the $100,000 Tri-State Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile turf race planned for Labor Day, Sept. 6.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Men's Exclusive, the 11-year-old millionaire who was favored in the 1997 Breeders' Cup Sprint, has returned to training after a seven-month retirement.

Trainer Wesley Ward said Men's Exclusive was "in a depressive state" when he was retired at owner Doris Reed's ranch in Corona, Calif.

DEL MAR, Calif. - The blazing speed that carried Wind Water to a four-length stakes win at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton earlier this month will be tested when he starts in Wednesday's $125,000 Graduation Stakes at Del Mar.

Wind Water won his first race in the Everett Nevin Futurity at Pleasanton on July 4, flying through early fractions of 21.15 and 43.95 seconds before finishing five furlongs in 56.20.

EDMONTON, Alberta ? Controlled Meeting, bought by owner Rick Wiest in California for $6,500, further confused the picture for the $250,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands Aug. 28 by scoring a $21.20 victory in last Saturday?s Ky Alta.

Under Richard Hamel?s urging, Controlled Meeting, unraced until this spring at Calgary, swept into the lead on the last turn and then held off the charging Kat Kool and Ol Fifty in a three-horse photo.

CHICAGO - Million Preview Day at Arlington was a decent concept. Lump together nominal preps for the track's trio of Grade 1 grass races in August, and see what happens. But Preview Day has been more a gathering of AAA talent not quite fit for the Grade 1's - until this year. All three turf stakes Saturday could produce multiple starters for the Grade 1 races on Aug. 14, and the horses coming out of them might hold their own this year.