Smooth Maneuvers, unbeaten in three starts as a sprinter, moves up in class and tries two turns for the first time in Saturday's $55,000 Cordially Stakes at Delaware Park.

Smooth Manuevers was claimed for $25,000 out of her career debut in early August. Since then, she has easily won a pair of allowance races.

A 3-year-old filly, Smooth Manuevers will stretch her speed from six furlongs to a mile without her usual jockey, Ramon Dominguez. Her Tomlinson distance rating of 356 indicates Smooth Maneuvers, a daughter of Grindstone, has the pedigree to handle a mile.

Three horses with only one win apiece and two who are still maidens will vie in Saturday night's $50,000 Tri-State Futurity at Charles Town. The seven-furlong race is restricted to 2-year-olds foaled in Maryland, Virginia, or West Virginia.

Mighty Awesome is the only horse in the field to win against maiden special weight company. He has raced nine times, including four stakes.

Red Velvet Cake owns the best last race Beyer Speed Figure, however, and is the lone speed. He earned a 57 Beyer for his second-place finish against claimers at Laurel Park earlier this month.

Horseplayers should not read much into the fact that trainer Steve Asmussen will not be on hand to saddle probable favorite Academic Angel in the $35,000 Jiffy Lube at Sam Houston Race Park on Saturday night.

Asmussen is at Santa Anita, where he is to have three starters in the Breeders' Cup.

ANDERSON, Ind. - Gottabeabeachboy returns to his native state and switches from turf to dirt, while Mr. Mink will try to stretch his speed over 1 1/16 miles in Saturday's $35,000 Benjamin Harrison Stakes for Indiana-bred 3-year-olds at Hoosier Park.

Gottabeabeachboy, trained by Robert Hackworth, has proven a useful turf runner facing older rivals at Arlington Park most of the year. A son of Mister Baileys, Gottabeabeachboy returns to the track where he won his maiden in a two-turn race by 7 3/4 lengths as a 2-year-old.

The top contenders in the $35,000 Black Mesa at Remington on Saturday will all be turning back in distance for the seven-furlong race. One of them, Bayakoa's Image, won the Black Mesa last year, one start after taking a two-turn stakes.

Bayakoa's Image repeated in that two-turn race, the Oklahoma Classics Day Distaff, in her last out Sept. 27. She set the pace and drew out by eight lengths.

Kevin Cogburn has the mount on Bayakoa's Image, who is trained by O.J. Osborn.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Racing fans will mostly be focused on the Breeders' Cup on Saturday, but there's also live racing, and the feature is a $35,000 optional race for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Wegota Slewzy will attempt to pick up where she left off last season when she heads a stellar field in Saturday's six-furlong Diane Kem Handicap at Portland Meadows.

Wegota Slewzy, a 6-year-old daughter of Tip on Slew, ended the last meeting here with consecutive scores in the six-furlong City of Roses Stakes and two six-furlong allowance tests. In each race, she sprinted clear early and drew out to score by daylight under regular rider Bob Webb, who has the mount on Saturday.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Penn National-based trainer Todd Beattie will hit the road again Saturday, continuing a familiar routine.

Beattie maintains a private barn at that track and estimates that 45 percent of his runners ship out to race.

Beattie will load Tigress Bythetail on the van for the $45,000 Miss Liberty Stakes, the Saturday night feature at The Meadowlands.

The 1 1/16-mile race is one of the few remaining stakes opportunities in the country for 3-year-old fillies.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Winter Garden probably will not be crowned Canadian champion 3-year-old filly at year's end, but it's not because she wouldn't be a deserving winner of that honor. The 3-year-old filly division, which is particularly strong this year, is headed by Grade 1 Selene Stakes winner Too Late Now and two accomplished runners from Western Canada, Raylene and Dancewithavixen.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Jockey Ron Warren Jr., a perennial top 10 rider in northern California, was playing golf with former jockey and racing official Paul Nicolo the week the Bay Meadows fall meeting opened. Warren's cell phone rang, and on the other end was Warren's agent, Tom Doutrich, telling the jockey he was going to take a job as racing secretary.

"Paul suggested calling Fordell Fierce," Warren said.

Fierce retired from training two years ago and had never served as an agent before, but he agreed to give it a try.

Thus far, Warren hasn't missed a beat.