COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - Lanny Brooks was elected president of the local Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association last week, taking 70 percent of the vote to defeat Delmar Stortzum, Bob Lawrence, and Dawn Haught. Jim Watkins, who succeeded Louis O'Brien as president when he resigned in 2001, did not run.

MUSKEGON, Mich. - Sefas Rose, heads a field of six Michigan-bred females in the $45,000 Moonbeam Stakes Friday night. The Moonbeam is run at 1 1/16 miles and goes as the seventh race on the 6:30 p.m. Central card.

Sefas Rose, owned by Joan Sefa and the Estate of Farid Sefa, is trained by Brenda Hill and will be ridden by Freddie Mata, the meet's top rider. She is the 8-5 favorite in the morning line.

NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Baba Gonzo, a 2-year-old daughter of Elusive Quality who won her maiden in the Miss Ohio Stakes here on Saturday, is a half-sister to stakes winners Big Bambu and Bolaro, who won the Miss Ohio last year. Baba Gonzo was bred and is owned by Edward Marshall and is trained by Alan Sobol.

Trainers were busy at the claim box last Sunday, when five horses changed barns. Trainer Dale Baird shipped four horses up from Mountaineer and three of them finished second. He had only one horse to ship back home as the other three were claimed.

At age 37, trainer Paul Jones is Quarter Horse racing's most celebrated trainer. Now he is staring at the sport's ultimate test - the Grade 1, $2 million All American Futurity on Monday at Ruidoso Downs.

Only 10 juveniles from the 176 that entered the 18 trials on Aug. 14 qualified to run in Monday's finals for the $1 million first-place prize. Three are trained by Jones.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Perfect Soul, coming off a close fifth-place finish in the Arlington Million, began his march toward the Sept. 14 Atto Mile here Wednesday by working four furlongs on the turf training track.

With assistant trainer Rachel Halden in the irons, Perfect Soul was clocked in 48.60 seconds.

Roger Attfield, who trains Perfect Soul for owner-breeder Charles Fipke, said Perfect Soul's tentative schedule called for a "decent work next Wednesday and probably a little blowout the following Wednesday."

Timing is everything. With slightly less than two months remaining before the Breeders' Cup races are to be run at Santa Anita, there is sill time for enough chaos to ensue to make playing the favorites a bad idea, but not enough time to make things wild and unpredictable enough to make betting the field an attractive option.

That leaves plenty of middle ground for futures enthusiasts to exploit. There are two categories of wagers that bettors should be able to locate at this stage of the game: cashable overlays, and potential home runs.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Two years ago, everyone from the racing secretary to the betting public expected Praise the Prince to win the Grade 1 New York Turf Writers Cup. But the 160-pound weight assignment proved too much as Praise the Prince checked in third as the 2-5 favorite.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Bobby Frankel has lost 17 consecutive races at Saratoga and went winless in six Grade 1 races over the weekend from coast to coast. Now, for the bad news.

Milwaukee Brew and Sea of Showers, two of Frankel's bevy of graded stakes winners, came out of their respective weekend races with injuries and are expected to be retired. Milwaukee Brew has been removed from the Classic field for this weekend's Breeders' Cup Future Wager, reducing the number of individual betting interests to 22 plus the field.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Tamara, who was scratched from last Sunday’s Ontario Colleen Handicap, should be favored in Thursday’s seventh race at Woodbine, a six-furlong turf allowance for fillies and mares.

Tamara graduated second-time out on the main track May 19, and subsequently ran third behind classy Saint Bernadette in allowance company.

Trainer David Bell tried Tamara on the grass June 29, in the 6 1/2-furlong Ontario Damsel Stakes, in which she rallied wide to finish just a length behind the winner in third.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Taste of Paradise was dismissed at 37-1 when he won the San Diego Handicap earlier this month, but he will not be anywhere near that price when he starts in Monday's Grade 2, $250,000 Del Mar Breeders' Cup Handicap, the highlight of the Labor Day program at Del Mar.

Taste of Paradise has worked swiftly since that race, including a six-furlong drill in 1:10.80 on Tuesday morning. He has never finished out of the money in three starts at Del Mar.