EDMONTON, Alberta - Two upper-level claiming races are the highlights of Friday's card at Northlands.

Force King, from Ernie Keller's stable, heads a field of six in the eighth race, for $22,000 claimers at 1 1/16 miles. Leanne Painter retains the mount on Force King, who is coming off a third-place finish in a three-way win photo at Friday's distance.

Force King, a California-bred, also has had a win and a second for $15,000 since returning to the races after a break following a winter campaign at Turf Paradise.

Designed for Luck won his first stakes in almost three years in Wednesday's $76,675 Live the Dream Handicap at Del Mar, nearly clinching the riding title for winning jockey Patrick Valenzuela.

Designed for Luck was Valenzuela's 52nd winner of the meeting, giving him a five-race cushion on his closest pursuer, Julie Krone. Wednesday was the final day of the Del Mar meeting. Krone had six mounts in the final seven races of the program, while Valenzuela had five rides.

Perfect Energy, the longest shot on the board in the seven-horse field, went gate to wire Wednesday at Belmont to win the $65,800 Via Borghese Stakes by three-quarters of a length. Lojo rallied to be second, 1 1/4 lengths ahead of Blond Dancer.

Under Javier Castellano, Perfect Energy was able to make the lead and set fractions of 24.81 seconds, 49.51, 1:14.16, and 1:37.46. Perfect Energy covered the nine furlongs in 1:49.02 over a firm inner turf course and returned $36.20 to win.

POMONA, Calif. - Racing officials at the Los Angeles County Fair are expecting big things for the 2003 meet that begins Friday at Fairplex Park. A full barn area is one indication that field sizes will be large and the racing competitive. "If everybody who says they are coming, actually does, I think we'll have a great meet," racing secretary Dick Wheeler said.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Empire Maker, the Belmont Stakes winner, who scratched out of the Travers Stakes with a cough, has been coughing again and may be forced to miss the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Sept. 27, trainer Bobby Frankel said Wednesday.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Growth spurts, tender shins, petulant behavior - training a talented 2-year-old often can feel like a roller coaster ride. And that's what has the trainer Bret Calhoun concerned.

Cactus Ridge, 3 for 3 and one of the fastest juveniles in the country, has had nothing but smooth sailing this season. His next race will come here Sept. 27 in the Arlington-Washington Futurity, and Calhoun feels that Cactus Ridge is coming up to it better than he has been yet.

"It's been a little scary how good things have gone," Calhoun said Wednesday.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Jockey Jason Lumpkins begins a 10-day suspension Friday for a ride in last Sunday's second race at Bay Meadows.

Lumpkins asked for a stay on the suspension from the California Horse Racing Board pending an appeal, but his agent, Dennis Patterson, was informed Wednesday that the stay had been denied.

Sam Houston Race Park in Houston has moved the date of one of its top races, the $200,000 Connally Breeders' Cup Turf, from February to April next year in one of several changes to a $2.1 million stakes schedule, which was released Wednesday.

In all, 37 stakes are planned for the track's upcoming Thoroughbred meet, which will run 93 days from Oct. 23 to April 10. Daily purses during the meet will average $110,000.

Sam Houston's attendance during its 43-night Quarter Horse meet that ended Saturday averaged 4,267 in attendance a night, compared to 4,197 a year ago. Handle on the track's live races averaged $595,643 a card compared to $705,791 in 2002.

Next year, Sam Houston will host the MBNA America Challenge Championship, which is a Breeders' Cup for Quarter Horses, on Nov. 6.

Trainer Ralph Martinez appears to have successfully made the transition from Fairmount Park to Hoosier Park.

On Friday the 25-year-old Martinez saddled three winners on the card. He became the ninth trainer to register the feat and joins a list that includes Bernie Flint, Gary Patrick, and Stanley Roberts, who has pulled off the hat trick three times.