LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When a filly has earned nearly a half-million dollars from just six starts - and yet the consensus opinion is that the season has been a disappointment - it can only mean one thing: Expectations going into the year were extremely high.

That's the way 2003 has gone for Awesome Humor, who was spectacular when she went unbeaten in four starts last year at 2. Even her trainer, Elliott Walden, is quick to acknowledge that Awesome Humor has slipped a notch or two by winning only two of six starts this year.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Horsemen and handicappers alike are hoping Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Athenia Handicap at Aqueduct remains on the turf. For horsemen, there are limited turf stakes opportunities remaining in the Northeast. For handicappers, few races come up as competitive as the Athenia.

STICKNEY, Ill. - There were 63 Illinois-bred horses entered in the Illinois Festival of Racing on Saturday at Hawthorne. By the time the last of six stakes races comes up, 50 of the horses will have run. The spotlight will then swing onto Wiggins, who will attempt to cap an excellent 3-year-old season by beating older horses in the Robert F. Carey II Handicap.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Wake at Noon, Canada's reigning Horse of the Year, could make his final start before going to stud Saturday in the $166,650 Woodbine Slots Cup. The Grade 3 Slots Cup, a 1 1/16-mile handicap, has lured an excellent nine-horse field.

Wake at Noon, a 6-year-old trained by Abraham Katryan, has had a typically good year, winning three stakes in eight starts. Wake at Noon made his mark as a sprinter, but captured two 1 1/16-mile stakes in the summer - the Izvestia and Seagram Cup.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - A graded stakes winner of $750,000, Futural certainly is the class of the field in a $25,000 optional-claiming sprint at Hastings on Saturday. What is not so certain is how Futural will adjust to racing 6 1/2 furlongs, a distance much shorter than usual for him.

Futural has never won going 6 1/2 furlongs and is coming off of a third-place finish in the 1 3/8-mile Premier's Oct. 12. The last time he ran in a sprint he finished fourth in an allowance race July 19.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Americas Pride will be an overwhelming favorite when she takes on six rivals, all maidens, in Saturday's six-furlong Janet Wineberg Stakes for Oregon-bred juvenile fillies.

Americas Pride won three races at Emerald Downs last summer, including the 6 1/2-furlong Knights Choice Stakes. She concluded her campaign with a strong second to Sala de Oro in the $75,000 Barbara Shinpoch stakes at a mile Aug. 31.

ALBANY, Calif. - Last spring, when Presidio Heights was making news by winning the Danville and Atherton handicaps, Steve Sherman made a bold prediction about another horse in his barn, My Captain.

"I told people that I thought he was better than Presidio Heights," said Sherman, the son of and assistant to trainer Art Sherman.

My Captain is the likely favorite in Saturday's $60,000-added Albany Handicap at Golden Gate Fields. He has won three straight stakes: the Ernest Finley at Santa Rosa, Big Jag at Bay Meadows, and Bull Dog at Fresno.

ALBANY, Calif. - Last spring, when Presidio Heights was making news by winning the Danville and Atherton handicaps, Steve Sherman made a bold prediction about another horse in his barn, My Captain.

"I told people that I thought he was better than Presidio Heights," said Sherman, the son of and assistant to trainer Art Sherman.

My Captain is the likely favorite in Saturday's $60,000-added Albany Handicap at Golden Gate Fields. He has won three straight stakes: the Ernest Finley at Santa Rosa, Big Jag at Bay Meadows, and Bull Dog at Fresno.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Saturday's $15,480-added Janet Wineberg Stakes for Oregon-bred juvenile fillies figures to be something of a showcase for Baquero, who is one of the more promising sires to enter stud in the Northwest in recent years.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Right now, there's nobody riding better at Hastings than Alan Cuthbertson. He won four races last Sunday, and, coming into this weekend, has won 20 races from 100 starts at the meet. Those are pretty amazing numbers for someone who is 56 and hadn't ridden for almost two years.