ALTOONA, Iowa - Last year, Perfect Drift won four graded stakes and earned more than $1.5 million. This year, Perfect Drift has yet to win a race. He will try to remedy that Saturday in the Grade 3, $300,000 Cornhusker Breeders' Cup Handicap at Prairie Meadows.

A 1 1/8-mile race, the Cornhusker shares Saturday's 10-race card with the $125,000 Iowa Distaff Breeders' Cup. Saturday is day three of the four-day Iowa Festival of Racing, which features two stakes per day worth a total of over $1.1 million.

ALTOONA, Iowa - Graded stakes winners Cat Fighter and Allspice lead a field of five fillies and mares in Saturday's $125,000 Iowa Distaff Breeders' Cup at Prairie Meadows.

The Iowa Distaff Breeders' Cup is one of two stakes on a card that is topped by the Grade 3, $300,000 Cornhusker.

Trained by Bob Baffert, Cat Fighter finished third, beaten 1 3/4 lengths, in the Grade 2 El Encino Stakes in January at Santa Anita. She returned at the same track on Feb. 14 and scored a head victory in the Grade 2 La Canada after dueling throughout in the 1 1/8-mile event.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Some have said Arlington's early season looks very much like the National Jockey Club at Hawthorne meet that ended just before this one began. And it is true. Racing here has had a decidedly local flavor. How could it be otherwise? Churchill Downs, Arlington's sister track under the Churchill Downs Inc. banner, has gone head-to-head with Arlington since the meet's inception, and with bigger purses and a better-known product, Churchill will win out.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The 2-year-olds here will get their first shot at stakes money July 17. Nominations close on Wednesday for the Ladnesian for colts and geldings and the Timber Music for fillies.

Montero should have a big edge in the Timber Music. A daughter of Louis Quatorze, she was a game winner of a six-furlong maiden special weight race last Saturday, and that gives her the distinction of being the lone 2-year-old at Hastings with a win going around two turns.

Trainer Steve Asmussen is in an excellent position to pick up his sixth 2-year-old stakes win of the year Saturday, with Ready to Live in the $50,000 Rebel Stakes at Louisiana Downs.

And it's only July.

For Asmussen, it has been the year of the 2-year-old. He has won a phenomenal 33 juvenile races around the country through Wednesday night, with his 2-year-olds accounting for more than $1 million in purse earnings. Asmussen has a 5-for-14 record in juvenile stakes this year, winning major races in Kentucky and Texas.

CARENCRO, La. - Three unbeaten colts, three impressive trial winners, one tough decision for bettors. That is the situation in Saturday night's $100,000 D. S. "Shine" Young Futurity at Evangeline Downs. The top four finishers from the three qualifying trials, run June 12, will line up in the five-furlong race for Louisiana-bred 2-year-olds.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Fresh off his victory over open company in the Come Summer Stakes last week, Vazandar is part of a two-horse entry that will challenge older rivals in the $40,000 Blair's Cove Stakes for Minnesota-bred colts and geldings.

A 1 1/16-mile turf contest, the Blair's Cove has never been won by a 3-year-old, but Vazandar's sharp performance in the Come Summer suggests he may be up to the task.

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - The outcome of Saturday's $30,000 Seattle Slew Handicap, a six-furlong race for 4-year-olds and upward at Fairmount Park, hinges on which Bulldog George emerges from the paddock: last fall's version, which posted three 100-plus Beyers in Chicago and Keeneland, or the 2004 version, which has yet to finish in the money versus less classy competition at Fairmount.

MUSKEGON, Mich. - Rockem Sockem, defeated by older horses twice this meet at Great Lakes Downs, returns to the 3-year-old ranks when he faces six in the $40,000 Spartan Stakes on Saturday evening.

All six entrants in the Spartan, a seven-furlong race for colts and geldings, will carry 122 pounds.

PLEASANTON, Calif. - Invading Southern California-based fillies seem the ones to beat in the $40,000-added Juan Gonzalez Memorial Stakes at the Alameda County Fair on Saturday.

An overflow field of 11 was entered in the five-furlong sprint for 2-year-old fillies.

Kelly's Princess, who drew the rail, comes off a strong third in the Nursery Stakes at Hollywood Park. She could be the one to beat, although the rail draw may work against her.