AUBURN, Wash. - Only two starts back, Ruby Dawn was hoping to score a maiden victory at the $6,250 level. Today, she is preparing for the $40,000 John and Kitty Fletcher Stakes for Washington-bred 3-year-old fillies at a mile, one of eight stakes on the inaugural Washington Cup Day card at Emerald Downs on Sept. 21.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Proud Son and Lord Samari are the only stakes winners in the Jack Diamond Futurity, which goes as the ninth race Sunday, but don't be surprised if another horse jumps up and wins the race. There's plenty of upside to many of the lightly raced 2-year-olds in the race and just about anything is possible when 10 juveniles run on the tight-turned Hastings oval.

FLORENCE, Ky. - Sure, it's a little over the top. Labeling the Kentucky Cup as a "Day of Champions" involves quite a bit of hyperbole, but where there's smoke, there is a least some semblance of fire.

Indeed, now that it has reached a milestone - this is the 10th year for the Kentucky Cup - it can be fairly said that the event has drawn a fair share of champions and top-class horses. And happily for Turfway Park, another really good racehorse has come down the pike: Congaree will be here Saturday to run in the richest of the five Kentucky Cup races, the $350,000 Classic.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Whatever went through trainer Bobby Frankel's barn at Saratoga has seemed to follow the stable down south to Belmont Park. Frankel said 10 horses in his barn are coughing, among them Sightseek, who will not run as scheduled in Saturday's $300,000 Ruffian Handicap.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Shake You Down rebounded from his fourth-place finish at odds-on in last month's Grade 2 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap with a front-running, 5 3/4-length victory in a classified allowance race Thursday at Belmont Park.

The race was Shake You Down's final prep before the $1 million Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Pretty Wild came close to winning a couple of Grade 1's last year, and now the time looks right for him to get his first stakes win in Saturday's $150,000 Jerome Handicap at Belmont Park.

Pretty Wild, coming off a strong win in his comeback race last month at Saratoga, is one of nine 3-year-olds entered in the Grade 2 Jerome.

As a 2-year-old, Pretty Wild finished second in the Hopeful and Futurity. After a fourth-place finish as the favorite in the Champagne last October, Pretty Wild was found to have a knee chip that required surgery.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Volponi is a horse that seemingly reacts positively to change. Change his equipment - such as adding blinkers in last year's Breeders' Cup Classic - and Volponi usually responds with a big race.

Twice Volponi has won stakes when he changed surfaces from dirt to turf. And four times in his 28-race career Volponi has won a race when trainer Phil Johnson has changed riders.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Shine Again, who is approaching the end of her racing career, looks to add another stakes victory to her resume in Saturday's $100,000-added Floral Park Handicap at Belmont Park.

Shine Again, a 6-year-old mare with $1.2 million in earnings and a record of 14-8-7 from 32 starts, likely will be retired at the end of the season, according to her trainer, Allen Jerkens. After the Grade 3 Floral Park, she probably will run in the First Flight on Oct. 25, a race she won the last two years.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Wando, who has gathered a dedicated following through his sweep of the Canadian Triple Crown, will be looking to take his game to a new level here Sunday when he faces 10 rivals in the Grade 1, $1 million Atto Mile.

The seventh running of the Atto Mile, a turf race for 3-year-olds and up, is a wide-open contest in which very few of the entrants can be eliminated with confidence.

CHICAGO - The filly Keeping the Gold is entered in Saturday's Pucker Up Stakes at Arlington Park. She also was entered in the Prairie Meadows Oaks on Friday, a dirt race worth $100,000 less than the Pucker Up. Keeping the Gold's trainer, Chris Block, wants to try his filly on turf, and only ships when required. So, why bother cross-entering?

"The race here is coming up really tough," Block said, emphatically.