ANDERSON, Ind. - Mr. Mink and Ellens Lucky Star will try to stretch their win streaks to four when they head their respective stakes Sunday at Hoosier Park.

Mr. Mink will run in the $35,000-added To Much Coffee Stakes for older Indiana-breds, while Ellens Lucky Star will run in the $35,000-added Frances Slocum for statebred fillies and mares. Both races are run at 1 1/16 miles.

In the To Much Coffee, Mr. Mink seeks his third straight stakes victory at the meet in a field of nine that includes entrymate Donnies Pick.

ALBANY, Calif. - The first steps on the northern California Derby trail begin Sunday at Golden Gate Fields with the $60,000-added Golden Bear Stakes.

Nine 2-year-olds were signed up for the six-furlong race, although some connections did so reluctantly.

"That's the way the thing came up," said trainer Bud Klokstad, who will enter stakes winners Market Report and Corvallis Dee. "I have no other choice but to go there. You can't pass up the race or your horse won't run for seven or eight weeks before the next stakes."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The 2003 Woodbine meeting is winding down, with closing day set for next Sunday.

But there's already major news about the 2004 meeting, which now is scheduled to begin on Saturday, April 17.

The Woodbine Entertainment Group's original racing dates application was for a 167-day meeting beginning April 3 and concluding Nov. 28. The backstretch was to open for training on Feb. 15.

The Churchill Downs press box, which is scheduled to be ready for the 2005 Kentucky Derby, will be named "The Joe Hirsch Media Center" in honor of Daily Racing Form's longtime executive columnist, the track announced Friday.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Earlier this week, the $250,000 on Saturday was shaping up as a clash between high-profile stakes winners The Tin Man and Megahertz.

Neither was entered on Thursday. The Tin Man injured an ankle and is unlikely to start until next year. Trainer Bobby Frankel had second thoughts about paying $15,000 to supplement and start the 4-year-old Megahertz against males. She will be pointed for the Dahlia Handicap on Dec. 20.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The Tin Man, fourth in the Breeders' Cup Turf last month, was not entered for Saturday's $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup after he was found to have suffered an ankle injury Thursday, trainer Richard Mandella said.

The Tin Man was expected to be a strong favorite in the Grade 1 Turf Cup.

Mandella said The Tin Man "wrenched an ankle" but X-rays showed no damage.

"It's a little tender," Mandella said. "It's just a little setback."

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - It stopped raining in New York at 10 a.m. Thursday, and two hours later the sun burst through the clouds, giving racing officials hope that Saturday's Grade 2, $150,000 Red Smith Handicap would remain on the turf.

Pity, too. It was shaping up as a more intriguing race on dirt, with Evening Attire and Snake Mountain prepared to square off.

Instead, handicappers must decipher the inconsistent form of 12 runners whose combined record in 2003 is 12 for 89. The Red Smith, run at 1 3/8 miles, is the last turf stakes scheduled in New York this year.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The last time trainer Pat Kelly shipped Riskaverse to Kentucky, she went home with all the money. On Saturday, more than 13 months after hitting that career pinnacle, the New York-based Riskaverse will be back in town as part of a terrific field of fillies and mares in the $150,000 at Churchill Downs.

Riskaverse is one of a handful of major contenders in the 30th running of the Grade 3 Cardinal, a 1 1/8-mile turf race in which Bien Nicole will start as the 120-pound highweight. Riskaverse, with 118 pounds, is second on the weights list.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Jake Nemett's two stable stars, Kabul and El Gran Maestro, have accumulated six second-place finishes between them in stakes at Woodbine this year. El Gran Maestro will try to get Nemett his first stakes victory of the meeting Saturday in the $128,500 Sir Barton, a 1 1/16-mile race for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds.

ALBANY, Calif. - Five 2-year-old fillies will each seek her initial stakes victory Saturday in the $60,000-added Piedmont Stakes at Golden Gate Fields.

Most eyes will be on undefeated Wildwood Flower, a half-sister to stakes winner Eye of the Tiger who is seeking her third straight victory.