AUBURN, Wash. - Alfurune and Knightsbridge Road, both stakes winners over this track last season, will face off in Saturday's one-mile allowance feature at Emerald Downs.

CHICAGO - There are fillies who do not care for racetrack life. They fret and pace their stall, and do not eat or train as well as they should. And when they race, no matter what their raw talent, the mental strain erodes their edge.

Mayo on the Side was in this camp. At the racetrack she would tie up, a condition in horses like muscle cramps in humans and one that will take a horse out of the game. Then Mayo on the Side was moved from the racetrack to the Skylight Training Center outside Louisville, and here she found a home.

EAST BOSTON, Mass. - On any other day the $200,000 James B. Moseley Handicap would be a worthy headliner at Suffolk Downs. But on Saturday, one year after holding the top spot, the Moseley is relegated back to the undercard of the , which has returned following a one-year hiatus.

Despite playing second fiddle, the Moseley still may turn out to be the best race of the year in Boston.

MIAMI - Earlier this season, the Calder-based 3-year-old colony was the strongest it had been in recent memory. But after injuries claimed the life of Wynn Dot Comma and sidelined Second of June and Silver Wagon indefinitely, the division was suddenly wide open and looking for a new leader.

Baseball has its designated hitter. Norberto Arroyo Jr. is becoming the designated stakes rider for New Yorkers at Delaware Park.

Since moving his tack to Delaware from Aqueduct on Memorial Day, Arroyo has won three stakes and finished second in another added-money event, all for trainers who are either based in New York or race there frequently.

Lion Heart, Rock Hard Ten, and Salty Punch are all 3-year-olds. What else do they have in common?

They all ran second in stakes to Smarty Jones.

Lion Heart, the Kentucky Derby runner-up, and Rock Hard Ten, the Preakness runner-up, are recognizable names. But who is Salty Punch?

Last November, Salty Punch was second-best, albeit 15 lengths behind Smarty Jones, in the Pennsylvania Nursery. He returns to Philadelphia Park for the first time since then for Saturday's $50,000 Peppy Addy, a seven-furlong stakes for Pennsylvania-bred 3-year-olds.

All That Glitters will try to prove she's still a stakes-caliber turf sprinter in the $50,000 Somethingroyal for Virginia-bred fillies and mares at Colonial Downs.

A 10-year-old mare, All That Glitters will be returning from an eight-month layoff, but trainer Mike Trombetta excels with runners who have been idle more than 180 days, hitting at a 50-percent clip the past two years. All That Glitters won three in a row at Colonial last season, including the Somethingroyal by four lengths.

It's hard to go wrong in the feature race at Charles Town if you stick to a horse trained by one of the Capuano brothers.

Gary and Dale Capuano will each saddle a two-horse entry in the $50,000 Summer Distaff, a 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares. All four of their horses look like contenders in a field of 10.

Although Dale Capuano's duo of Grace Bay and Point Lily are favored on the track's morning line at 7-5, brother Gary's entry of Redoubled Miss and Ribbon Cane might be more formidable.

Due to Win and Due to Win Again, half-sisters who each won a stakes in their last start at Louisiana Downs, are both shooting to win the Bossier City, La., track's $50,000 Old South Handicap for a second time Saturday.

Due to Win Again won the 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares last year, and Due to Win captured it in 1999.

The siblings do not race together often, but when they do the results have been good for their breeders and owners, Howard and Penny Scarberry. The mares are also trained by Howard Scarberry.

FORT ERIE, Ontario - It was the same old refrain that the groom, Evelyn Mercier, had heard many times before when owner Russell Wintel made his usual prerace visit to see Ashagio at the Fort Erie shed row of trainer Daryl Ezra.

"I'm sick - I'm not going to last too much longer," Wintel, 82, would say to Mercier, 22. "I'm going to leave my half of Ashagio to you in my will. You take such good care of him. I know you love him."