MIAMI - Wire Bound became the undisputed leader of Calder's 3-year-old turf division with his easy victory in the Simply Majestic Stakes on May 22. His absence for greener pastures up north, however, leaves a couple of his victims in the Simply Majestic to slug it out for the top prize in Saturday's $40,000 Jackie Wackie Stakes, an overnight race carded at 1 1/16 miles on the grass.

Gin Rummy Champ finished second and Gold Shield fifth behind Wire Bound in the Simply Majestic, although it is Gold Shield who may wind up favored on Saturday.

Merry Me in Spring has flashed raw talent in each of her three career starts, but in her most recent race she really showed the bent of her mind. In a professional effort that belied her experience level, she turned a rail trip into a 1 1/4-length victory over older rivals in an allowance July 8.

It was the kind of performance that convinced her connections that the time has come to move Merry Me in Spring into stakes company, something that will happen Saturday when she puts her 3-for-3 record on the line in the $50,000 Senorita at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La.

EAST BOSTON, Mass. - A few details remain, but Rockingham Park continues to move forward with a plan to run three Thoroughbred turf races after its regularly scheduled harness racing card on Sept. 5.

The races would return flat racing to the Salem, N.H., track for the first time since the Rock switched to harness racing last year. The turf course there has gone unused after two decades of staging the area's most important grass races, including the New Hampshire Sweepstakes.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Blackdoun, a French import who had raced against some of that country's top 3-year-olds earlier this year, made a flashy American debut in the $85,450 second division of Wednesday's at Del Mar.

The victory put Blackdoun firmly on course for the $400,000 Del Mar Derby on Sept. 6, a race his trainer, Julio Canani, won with Ladies Din in 1998.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Laura de Seroux does not radiate emotion. What comes out publicly is a careful intelligence, balanced control.

But watching the Apple Blossom Handicap this past April 3 was pulling her apart.

In the race was Azeri, de Seroux's one-time mega-star. Azeri had been Horse of the Year in 2002, dragging de Seroux with her onto racing's center stage. And now, Azeri was out of de Seroux's hands.

ELMONT, N.Y. - After experiencing mostly frustration during the Belmont spring-summer meet, things have begun to turn for trainer Christophe Clement, who has won four races in the last eight cards.

The good times should continue for Clement on Friday when he sends out European import in the $48,000 feature, a second-level allowance race on the turf.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - If Arlington Million Day was what summer at Arlington was all about, why not have a warm-up? That was Arlington Park's thinking when it introduced Million Preview Day in 2001, and the multi-stakes program has come together nicely. The three graded turf stakes, the American Derby for 3-year-olds, the Modesty for females, and the Arlington Handicap for older males, were drawn Wednesday, with a total of 23 horses entered.

More rain than usual has hit south Texas this year, but still there has been something of a drought in the San Antonio area. There has been no live racing in the region since last October, the longest stretch of inactivity in the 10-year history of Retama Park.

That will be remedied Friday night, when the track opens for a 39-day meet that will run through Sept. 25.

"Everybody's like caged animals, wanting to get back to live racing," said Doug Vair, spokesman for Retama.

DEL MAR, Calif. - The expectations for are so high that the 2-year-old filly will make her career debut in the $125,000 California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes on Friday at Del Mar.

She will need to win to keep pace with her 3-year-old full-sister Silent Sighs, who won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks at Santa Anita last March.

"How do you top a filly that has won a Grade 1?" said Julio Canani, who trains both fillies.

DEL MAR, Calif. - There were 83 groups listed in Del Mar's official program as having functions on Wednesday's opening-day card. The American Plastics Council, surprisingly, was not among them. Yet everywhere you turned Wednesday at Del Mar, there were amazing things being done with plastics, ranging from contraptions - liberally labeled hats - atop fans' heads, to adult versions of show and tell.