Ontrack handle and attendance figures for Aqueduct's 89-day winter meeting fell sharply, while all-sources handle rose, according to figures provided by the New York Racing Association on Friday. Aqueduct's meet ended on May 2.

Average ontrack handle at Aqueduct on the track's races fell 6.5 percent, from $792,573 to $740,765, while average ontrack attendance dropped 15.7 percent, from 4,442 to 3,742. Winter temperatures this year in New York were some of the coldest on record, and rain and snow were also more common than usual.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sam-Son Farm and trainer Mark Frostad, who captured the last two runnings of the Grade 3 Connaught Cup Stakes with Quiet Resolve and Fly Smartly, could run one-two with Shoal Water and Puffer in Sunday's renewal of the 1 1/16-mile grass race at Woodbine.

Shoal Water ran in all three legs of the 2003 Canadian Triple Crown, finishing fourth in the Queen's Plate, third in the Prince of Wales, and second on turf in the Breeders' Stakes. He went on to capture the Grade 2 Saranac Handicap at Saratoga, before disappointing in his final two outings of the year.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - First Lieutenant has never been the luckiest horse.

Injuries have limited the 7-year-old to only 21 career starts. When he has run, misfortune has often been his companion. He was disqualified from a victory in Monmouth's Grade 3 Salvator Mile in 2002, and wound up in a traffic jam in the 2003 Tampa Bay Breeders' Cup Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

CHICAGO - As head of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, Joe Kasperski has spent plenty of time this week with an ear toward Springfield, Ill., where state governmental help for the Illinois racing industry - be it ontrack slots or some other salve - could become law during the ongoing legislative session.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Steve Asmussen, the nation's leading trainer in wins, will be saddling more horses than there are stakes on the Lone Star Million Day program Monday at Lone Star Park. He has nine horses set to start on the program of seven stakes worth $1 million, with at least one horse in each of the races.

AUBURN, Wash. - Millenium Nugget, the winner of last season's Captain Condo Stakes, will make his 3-year-old debut against 10 other 3-year-olds in Sunday's 6 1/2 furlong allowance feature at Emerald Downs.

Millenium Nugget, a stretch-running son of He's Tops from the barn of trainer Robbie Baze, won his initial start against $25,000 maidens and finished third to Random Memo and Harvard Avenue in a $50,000 optional claiming event before winning the six-furlong Captain Condo on Washington Cup Day, Sept. 21

CALGARY, Alberta - Saw Grass Sabre, winner of the President's Handicap here May 15, heads a full field of 10 3-year-olds in the Hoofprint on My Heart Handicap, the featured eighth race Sunday afternoon.

The $40,000 Hoofprint is the major prep to the June 19 Alberta Derby, and the one-mile distance will separate the contenders from the pretenders.

Saw Grass Sabre, a Florida-bred, served notice in the six-furlong President's by drawing off to a three-length tally over a surface rated good under mild urging from Stephan Heiler.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Skyhyla, an impressive debut winner of a very tough maiden special weight race May 8, will try to make it two in a row when she faces eight other 3-year-old fillies in a $50,000 optional race at Hastings on Sunday. She could have her hands full with a very sharp and speedy Wild Glory breaking from the rail. The 6 1/2-furlong feature goes as the ninth of 12 races.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Jockey Lorne Keizer had a lot working against him when he rode his first race at Hastings last Saturday. He had just gotten off a seven-hour flight from Toronto and had never galloped a horse over the Vancouver oval. In fact, he didn't even have any of his equipment. His tack, helmet, boots, and other gear were still packed away at the house of Anthony Stephen, a fellow rider and friend.

"I didn't really plan on riding Saturday," Keizer said. "I just went in to hang out and meet the other riders. Basically I just went in to check the place out."

MIAMI - The purse for the Sugar N Spice Stakes is only $40,000, but it's the race trainer David Fawkes has planned next that he will be thinking about when he sends Holy Bubbette in Sunday's six-furlong main event.

That next race is the $500,000 Princess Rooney Handicap, a Grade 2 event that shares top billing with the $500,000 Smile Sprint Handicap on the Summit of Speed program here July 10.

"If all goes well, the Princess Rooney is the one we're really pointing her for," said Fawkes, who trains Holy Bubbette for owner Katherine Elam.