SAN MATEO, Calif. - Saturday's $100,000 California Sprint Championship, a six-furlong race for Cal-breds, often serves as a prep for the Cal Cup at Santa Anita. This year's race has attracted a varied group of seven, ranging from Chataquos' Choice, a moon-shooting 3-year-old who just won his maiden in a claiming event, to 10-year-old millionaire Men's Exclusive.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Two-year-old fillies get their first chance to stretch out in Saturday's $50,000 Fantasy Stakes at Hastings. Overact figures to be a solid favorite over six others with Timber Music winner Sungold Skippy the likely second choice.

EDMONTON, Alberta - Exclusive Banker will seek his fourth win of the year in Saturday's $32,000 optional claiming feature at Northlands.

Exclusive Banker, trained by Dale Greenwood, has won twice for $28,000 and once for $22,000. He also finished a strong third in the Red Diamond Express on Alberta Fall Classics day on Sept. 20.

His chief opposition in this 6 1/2-furlong race will be Fussy's Kid, one of the circuit's most well-regarded sprinters, who was second to Sixthirtyjoe in the Red Diamond Express and lost a photo in an optional claimer in his previous start.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Mike Maker has led many a good horse into the Keeneland paddock, having worked for 10 years for D. Wayne Lukas. But since early May, when he opened his own public stable, Maker has been trying to find just the type of horse with whom he worked during his Lukas years.

He thinks he may have gotten one.

ELMONT, N.Y. - There was tremendous anticipation for the Grade 1 Hopeful when the undefeated, multiple stakes winner Chapel Royal took on the impressive debut winner Birdstone in the marquee 2-year-old event at Saratoga.

There was a tremendous letdown when Chapel Royal struggled home a well-beaten second behind Silver Wagon while Birdstone finished a less-impressive fourth. Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne at Belmont Park offers Chapel Royal and Birdstone a chance for redemption as the colts head an eight-horse field that will be going 1 1/16 miles around one turn.

ELMONT, N.Y. - It is testament to the brilliance of Halfbridled that trainer Bob Baffert decided to ship Victory U. S. A. cross-country for Saturday's $500,000 Frizette at Belmont Park. Victory U.S.A.'s presence in the Grade 1 race for 2-year-old fillies could add credence to - or perhaps dispel - the notion that the West Coast juvenile fillies are superior to those on the East.

Voters in Orleans Parish, La., on Saturday will help determine the future of a proposed slot machine parlor at Fair Grounds. The parish referendum is the second in three formal steps the track must take to bring slots. The first hurdle, legislative approval, was cleared last spring, and if the voters give approval Saturday, Fair Grounds faces a licensing suitability investigation by the Louisiana State Police.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Elliott Walden likes to tell a story about some sage advice he received early in his training career.

"People were constantly asking me before races if I liked my horse, and it got to be overwhelming after a while," said Walden. "Then another trainer told me to always say, 'I love him, just love him.' After four or five straight losers, they don't come around anymore."

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Last winter during a sports radio talk show, a fan asked University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino if any of his racehorses might compete in the Kentucky Derby. Pitino replied no. He said one horse, Della Francesca, could turn into a special horse on grass, and quipped that another, the struggling C.C. Minister, might soon be pulling a carriage in New York's Central Park.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Trainer Allen Iwinski could be primed for a spectacular Saturday.

He will run Dashboard Drummer, winner of the Sapling Stakes at Monmouth Park, in the Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes at Belmont that afternoon.

Then it's over to The Meadowlands to saddle the entry of Cupid Season and Stacy's Squaw in the $45,000 Just Smashing Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going six furlongs.

Both fillies come into the race on three-race win streaks.