East Boston, Mass. - The switch by Rockingham Park to harness racing has given Suffolk Downs three extra months of racing in the summer, and as a result horses can take advantage of a longer turf racing season here. Saturday, Sunlit Ridge will try to do just that when she tries for her second straight turf win in the $35,000 Sunset Gun Stakes.

On paper, the Sunset Gun figures to be Sunlit Ridge's to lose. She has five wins from seven starts over the Suffolk grass, and none of her six statebred rivals have won over the turf course here.

A record number of pre-entries was released Wednesday for the fifth annual , the $550,000, six-race series that will be run July 19 at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn.

Eighty-eight horses, including seven who were cross-entered in more than one race, were pre-entered, easily surpassing the 77 attracted by the inaugural Claiming Crown in 1999. The number of starters in each race is limited to 14. Every race drew at least 12 pre-entries.

MIAMI - Storm Flag is a freakishly fast 3-year-old filly who many feel has the best chance of any of the locals to capture one of the four graded stakes on Saturday's $1.75 million Summit of Speed program at Calder. Her emergence as a stakes horse is also giving her trainer, Richard Root, a chance to relive some of the glory days when his stable was among the biggest and best at Calder.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The prospect of Golden Ticket pulling an upset in Sunday's $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup has been greatly reduced since trainer Clifford Sise nominated the longshot last week.

What was expected to be a short field has turned into a competitive seven-horse field, leaving Golden Ticket as an outsider against the multiple graded stakes winners Congaree, Harlan's Holiday, Kudos, Western Pride, Piensa Sonando, and Rodion.

MIAMI - When racing secretary Bob Umphrey began barnstorming the major racing centers earlier this year looking to drum up support for Calder's Summit of Speed, he was elated with the reception he received. But even Umphrey could not have foreseen the response he would ultimately receive when the six stakes races worth $1.75 million were drawn Wednesday for Saturday's 13-race card.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Kafwain, a multiple stakes winner who was withdrawn from the Kentucky Derby four days before the race because of injury, has been retired.

Richard Mulhall, the racing manager of Kafwain's owner, The Thoroughbred Corp., said Kafwain will be sent to stud in Kentucky, but that plans have yet to be finalized.

In late April at Churchill Downs, Kafwain was diagnosed with a tendon injury that was originally expected to keep him out of training for four to six months. But Mulhall said plans for a return have been abandoned.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Coax Kid, unraced since a third-place finish in the Hollywood Futurity last December, makes his turf debut and first start of the year in a $48,000 allowance race over 5 1/2 furlongs on Friday.

The allowance race drew six runners, including two coming off recent wins - KO Love and Saint Lorenzo. The race is the seventh on an eight-race program plagued by short fields.

ALTOONA, Iowa - See How She Runs will attempt to win her second six-figure stakes at Prairie Meadows in 15 days when she heads a field of six in Friday's $125,000 Iowa Distaff.

See How She Runs found racing room through the stretch and rallied for a 1 1/2-length score in the $100,000 Saylorville Stakes at six furlongs here June 28 under her regular rider, Don Pettinger. The Saylorville win was See How She Runs's eighth victory in 14 career starts. She has finished second five times.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Australian Group 1 winner Sixty Seconds will make her U.S. debut for strong turf connections in Friday's feature race at Belmont Park, a one-mile grass race for older fillies and mares.

The allowance race attracted nine well-matched entrants, but most eyes will be on Sixty Seconds, a 5-year-old mare who beat males in listed stakes in her native New Zealand before notching graded stakes wins against fillies and mares in Australia last year, including the Group 1 Arrowfield Stud Stakes at Rosehill.

After just four races, management at Ellis Park canceled the balance of the opening-day program because of unsafe track conditions. Racing was scheduled to resume Thursday.

Nearly three inches of rain pounded the Henderson, Ky., track after the fourth race, forcing what many observers believed was the first opening-day cancellation since Ellis was built in 1922. The 41-day meet runs through Sept. 2.