AUBURN, Wash. - Dear Deputy and Tejati, who finished a nose apart in first and second in a similar race here on Aug. 14, will head a field of eight 3-year-old fillies in Friday's 6 1/2-furlong feature for $25,000 claimers at Emerald Downs.

In her recent victory over Tejati, Dear Deputy opened a three-length lead after a half-mile in 44.80 and ran six furlongs in 1:10.80. The additional sixteenth on Friday presents a challenge to Dear Deputy, but she has won three of six starts at the meeting and is in extremely sharp form.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - It's funny how things work out. Some horses languish in their barn for weeks and weeks, waiting for a suitable race to make it onto a program. Others come out to run every 17 to 21 days, like clockwork.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Stakes purses have been raised to record levels for the fall meet at Churchill Downs, with the most notable change an increase to $500,000-added for the signature race of the meet, the Grade 2 Clark Handicap.

The Clark, which may be the premier handicap race to follow the Breeders' Cup, was worth $457,200 last fall when it was conducted as a $400,000-added race and won by Lido Palace.

Having worked for nearly 17 years as a chemical engineer, Jeff Greenhill is now having a lot more fun in his career as a trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses. Based at River Downs, where the richest races of the meet take place this weekend, Greenhill said he got into racing "for the fun, not to get rich or famous - although I sure wouldn't mind winning that hundred-grander on Saturday."

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - She is almost certainly the best horse in the country who has not won a race this season. That hardly is a mark of distinction, but Take Charge Lady's losing streak should come to a screeching halt here Monday in the Arlington Matron Handicap. The Matron is a Grade 3 race, Take Charge Lady a Grade 1 horse: do the math.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Solar Fire and Wind Flow were third and fourth in the Sorrento Stakes on Aug. 9, a major prep for Saturday's $250,000 Del Mar Debutante.

Typically, such efforts in the Sorrento would make those fillies top contenders for the Debutante, the meeting's championship for 2-year-old fillies.

But not this year.

Impressive maiden wins by Victory U.S.A. and Halfbridled in the first two weeks of the meeting relegate Solar Fire and Wind Flow to outsiders for the Grade 1 Debutante, which is run over seven furlongs.

MIAMI - First there was the Festival of the Sun, then came the Summit of Speed, and last year it was the Sunshine Millions. Now it's "Baby Day," the latest in a string of innovative days at Calder Race Course. Baby Day features a 13-race live program made up entirely of 2-year-old races, including six stakes, topped by the middle legs of the Florida Stallion Stakes.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Russell Baze will be gunning for his 30th Bay Meadows riding title when the fall meet opens Friday.

Baze has won every major northern California meet he has competed at since his first title during the 1980-81 meet at Bay Meadows. He had 97 victories at the spring meet, one more than the combined total of runners-up Ron Warren Jr. (52) and Roberto Gonzalez (44).

Jason Lumpkins, who has given Baze his stiffest competition in recent years, will ride at the Bay Meadows meet after moving to Kentucky last winter.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Bay Meadows hopes to get off to a big start as it begins a 50-day fall meeting Friday.

Two stakes races are planned for opening weekend, including the $100,000 California Turf Championship, which last year was one of the meet's most hotly contested events.

Ninebanks and Surprise Halo ran one-two in the Turf Championship last year and are expected to renew their rivalry. Ninebanks won two graded stakes races this spring, and Surprise Halo is coming off a victory in the $100,000 Joseph Grace Handicap at Santa Rosa.

Ameri Brilliance set a world record of 43.76 seconds for four furlongs on dirt Saturday at Timonium. A 4-year-old Ameri Valay gelding, Ameri Brilliance won the optional claiming race by eight lengths.

The former world record for a half-mile on dirt was 43.80, set by Adventuresome Love in 1993 at Stampede Park and tied by Hafta Nafta three years later, also at Stampede.

Owned by Elaine Bassford and trained by Ben Feliciano Jr., Ameri Brilliance was coming off a 6 1/4-length victory in a 4 1/2-furlong allowance sprint at Mountaineer Park.