SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Sunday's $50,000-added Earlene McCabe Derby at the California State Fair is just the spot trainer Greg Gilchrist has been looking for.

He will enter Taraval in the six-furlong race for Cal-breds, and he goes into the race confident.

"That doesn't mean he'll win, but he has a better chance than the last three times," Gilchrist said.

Taraval will have five rivals, including Standard Setter, the Golden Gate Derby winner who has been on the sidelines with a minor knee injury since the derby on Jan. 11, when he defeated Buddy Gil among others.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Last year at Saratoga, Shine Again became the first horse to win back-to-back runnings of the Grade 1 Ballerina. On Sunday, Shine Again will try to make it three in a row in the $250,000 stakes.

Two things are different this time for Shine Again: In her Ballerina wins, she wasn't the highweight, and Jean-Luc Samyn rode her. On Sunday, Shine Again is the co-highweight with You at 120 pounds, and she won't have Samyn, who broke his femur in a spill Wednesday. Jose Santos will ride instead.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Over the last six months, Katdogawn has earned a reputation as an overachiever.

Bought for only $16,000 last year in England, Katdogawn has won 3 of 7 starts and $216,580 this year, including the Grade 2 San Clemente Handicap on Aug. 2.

The experience will help when she makes her Grade 1 debut in Sunday's $300,000 Del Mar Oaks.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Bob Durso believes Flank Attack has a reservoir of untapped potential. A key to unleashing that promise could be more distance, something the colt gets Sunday in the $50,000 Choice Stakes for 3-year-olds at Monmouth Park.

Flank Attack should find the 1 1/8 miles on the turf a perfect complement to his rallying style after running 1 1/16 miles or less in his last seven outings.

His one experience at the Choice distance came in the Grade 3 Tropical Park Derby at Calder in early January when he finished a hard-charging fourth.

MIAMI - Trainer Paul Maxwell will likely have one eye on the Weather Channel and one on the skies around Calder Race Course until his Formal Miss is safely in the starting gate for Sunday's $40,000 Dream On Stakes, an overnight event for 3-year-old fillies scheduled to be run at 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf.

AUBURN, Wash. - The $100,000 Emerald Breeders' Cup Distaff, which heads a stellar undercard on Sunday's Longacres Mile Day program, will feature another of the international match-ups that so enliven Northwest racing.

CHICAGO - In one short week, Arlington Park has gone from a mile and a quarter on the turf to a quarter-mile on the dirt.

The nominal feature here Sunday is the Windy City Dash, a $50,000 stakes for Quarter Horses. And yes, this is a far cry from the Arlington Million, the headliner here a week ago.

AUBURN, Wash. - Sky Jack heads a field of 10 in Sunday's 68th running of the Grade 3, $250,000 Longacres Mile, the premiere race of the Emerald Downs meeting.

Sunday's 11-race Mile Day card also includes the $100,000 Emerald Breeders' Cup Distaff for older fillies and mares at a mile and the $20,000 Washington Thoroughbred Owners' Handicap, which matches eight of the fastest sprinters on the grounds at five furlongs. No weights are assigned in the Owners' Handicap, with the jockeys riding at as low a weight as they can make.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Fancy Bru is the 3-2 morning-line favorite meeting five rivals in Sunday's $35,000 Harry Jeffrey for 3-year-old colts and geldings.

Owned by the partnership of Ed and Jim Pawluk and trainer Gary Danelson, Fancy Bru is proven at the 1 1/8-mile distance.

FORT ERIE, Ontario - Mark Frostad, trainer for the powerful Sam-Son Farm outfit, captured three of the four stakes at Woodbine last weekend.

And Frostad has a good chance to win Fort Erie's sole stakes offering this week, Sunday's $60,000 Peninsula, with Crucible and Quiet Colony entered. A seven-furlong race for 3-year-olds and upward scheduled for the turf, the Peninsula attracted a full field of 10, which includes two entries and one also-eligible.