SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The condition of the turf, more than the current form of the participants, may hold the key for the steeplechasers in Thursday's $75,000 A.P. Smithwick Memorial Stakes at Saratoga.

Persistent rain has left the course in soggy condition, which should help the chances of Trebizond but might hinder Anofferucantrefuse in a race that is treacherous to handicap because of so many questions regarding the leading contenders. The Smithwick, at 2 1/16 miles, is the first race on the card.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Next week, Barclay Tagg can ruin Bobby Frankel's triple crown bid.

Tagg has taken over the training of the Delaware Oaks winner, Island Fashion, and is pointing her to the Grade 1, $750,000 Alabama Stakes on Aug. 16. In that race, Spoken Fur, trained by Frankel, will be trying to sweep the New York filly triple crown series and the $2 million bonus that goes with it.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Yankee Gentlemen gained an immediate following with an 11-length win in his debut at Gulfstream Park in March 2002. He has been trying to live up to that performance ever since.

In five subsequent starts, Yankee Gentlemen has managed only one victory, which came in an allowance race. In his other starts, he unseated jockey Jerry Bailey at the start of an allowance race, finished well beaten in two stakes races, and finished second on turf.

DEL MAR, Calif. - The plain paper notebook on trainer Bruce Headley's stable desk holds many of the workings of the barn. One page may include a set list for the morning, another notes that Headley has made to himself.

When Headley leafs back several pages, there is a homemade calendar from April to August of this year, showing in detail Headley's exercise plans for Got Koko, who starts in Sunday's $300,000 Clement Hirsch Handicap at Del Mar.

CHICAGO - Memo to those who saw Perfect Drift crush foes in the Washington Park Handicap July 19 at Arlington: The best may be yet to come.

Perfect Drift, in his major work for the Aug. 16 Arlington Million, sizzled through a Saturday workout at the Trackside training center in Louisville, Ky. With his regular workout rider Joe Deegan aboard, Perfect Drift breezed five furlongs in a bullet 59.60 seconds, a terrifically fast work for the surface there. Trackside clockers termed the work "handily," and trainer Murray Johnson said Deegan never moved on Perfect Drift.

Saturday's $600,000 West Virginia Derby will be the state's first race to be shown live on ESPN, and the race is drawing its strongest lineup ever.

As of Tuesday, the racing office at Mountaineer Race Track had nine definites, including several graded winners, for the 1 1/8-mile West Virginia Derby, which was run as a Grade 3 for the first time last year. Entries will close on Wednesday and post positions will be drawn on Thursday.

MIAMI - Tuesday's card at Calder Race Course was canceled after the fifth race when the jockeys raised concerns about their safety because of the severe weather in the area.

Tuesday's fifth race was delayed nearly 15 minutes because of heavy rain and lightning. The storm abated long enough for the race to be completed over a sloppy track. The horses were in the paddock for the sixth race when the remainder of the nine-race program was called off.

Live racing was scheduled to resume at Calder on Friday. Wednesday and Thursday are regularly scheduled dark days at the track.

It's the tiniest of the racing fairs, with only a half-mile track, but the Humboldt County Fair, which opens Thursday in the Victorian city of Ferndale, has developed a cult status among racing fans.

It's a step back in time, with a tote board that shows only win odds, and slightly banked turns that make every race an adventure. The horses are cheap and slow for the most part, but the noise from the always-packed grandstand would make newcomers think they were at the Kentucky Derby or Breeders' Cup.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Sherrie Monroe figures she'll either be strutting or slinking back to her barn after Thursday's Bay Meadows Fair racing card is completed.

Monroe has an entrant in a one-mile, $25,000 claiming race on turf, and another in a $40,000 starter allowance race at six furlongs.

Both 3-year-old fillies are taking big steps up in class.

The Monroe-trained Shalmarie, who is by Siberian Summer, is one of 12 3-year-old fillies entered in the $25,000 claiming race.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Dennis Manning and owner Mac Fehsenfeld plan to take two shots at a Sapling Stakes repeat.

They won Monmouth Park's premier 2-year-old stakes race last year with Valid Video, and have Limit Free and Stringtown Wonder on target for Saturday's renewal of the Grade 3, $100,000 race.

"They are both decent horses and they are both coming off wins." Manning said. "I think Limit Free is an exceptionally nice horse."

Limit Free has made one start, rallying impressively over a muddy track to win by two lengths.