VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The thrilling stretch duel between victorious Royal Place and Lord Nelson in the Grade 3 Lieutenant Governors' on Thursday afternoon capped a great day of racing at Hastings. Also on display on Canada Day were the considerable talents of Regal Red. A 3-year-old filly, she won the Liberation Handicap by a widening 5 1/2 lengths and her final time of 1:43.73 for 1 1/16 miles was a second and a half faster than it took 3-year-old Tobe Suave to win the Burnaby Breeders' Cup on the same day.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - The male turf division has been branded by some a weak group lacking an assertive leader.

Meteor Storm has an opportunity to alter that perception with a second straight Grade 1 victory Saturday in the $750,000 at Monmouth Park.

The U.N., the 10th of 11 races, is the third leg of the NTRA National Pick 4, which offers a guaranteed pool of $400,000. The races will be broadcast live on ESPN from 4 to 6 p.m. Eastern. Post time for the U.N. is 5:20 p.m.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainers Christophe Clement and Bobby Frankel spent part of Thursday morning trying to talk the other into shipping his horse to California for next weekend's $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup.

Neither one bought what the other was selling.

Thus, barring a change in a favorable weather forecast, Clement's Dynever will square off against Frankel's Peace Rules in Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 at Belmont Park.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - After Mambo Slew won in an international field of fillies in last fall's Miesque Stakes, trainer Patrick Biancone immediately began planning for Saturday's American Oaks. Like the Miesque, the American Oaks is run at Hollywood Park, on turf, on the firm ground Mambo Slew prefers.

In recent months, has traveled across the country, winning stakes on both coasts, at Santa Anita and Belmont Park. "She beat everybody in the East. She beat everybody in the West," Biancone said Thursday. "Now, the problem is the Japanese."

The International Oaks might be a more appropriate name for Saturday's $750,000 American Oaks, in which five foreign invaders from three different continents will join three ex-foreigners and six Americans fillies in a 1 1/4-mile clash on the Hollywood Park turf course.

The most intriguing of the five invaders is Dance in the Mood. A Japanese-bred daughter of Sunday Silence, she is trained by Kazuo Fujisawa, the man who engineered Taiki Shuttle's victory in the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville in 1998.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The appeal of handicapping 14 evenly matched runners will be so enticing Saturday at Hollywood Park that few will fret about the absence of the country's top sprinters from the Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap. It would have been swell if Pico Central, Speightstown, and Ghostzapper had entered the seven-furlong, $300,000 race. But does it matter that they did not?

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - An illness to Etoile Montante will keep trainer Bobby Frankel from attempting a sweep of the two $100,000, one-mile turf stakes for females at Hollywood Park on Saturday.

Etoile Montante would have been a heavy favorite in the Royal Heroine Stakes for fillies and mares, but Frankel said from New York on Thursday that she would not ship to California.

The absence of Etoile Montante leaves Frankel without a starter in that race.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Steel Princess was beaten for the first time when she finished 10th in the French Oaks at Chantilly on June 13. With that major race behind her, and her three-race winning streak snapped, owner Richard Barnes and trainer Richard Gibson set their sights on international goals, sending Steel Princess to Hollywood Park for Saturday's $750,000 American Oaks.

MIAMI - B.B. Best should have little trouble keeping his perfect record intact and maintaining his status as the undisputed leader of the local 2-year-old division when he faces seven seemingly overmatched rivals in Saturday's $100,000 Criterium Stakes at Calder.

OCEANPORT, N. J. - Just a few months ago, it would have been difficult to imagine Mr O'Brien emerging as a top contender in Grade 1 turf races this summer. After all, before this spring he hadn't even run on the grass since June 2002. But given his recent development, he's a serious threat to win Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 United Nations at Monmouth Park.