AUBURN, Wash. - Emerald Downs will begin its eighth summer meeting on Saturday with a 10-race card featuring the $35,000 U.S. Bank Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs.

The 92-day meeting includes the inaugural Washington Cup Day on Sept. 21, the penultimate day of the meeting. Washington Cup Day will cluster eight stakes with combined purses of $400,000, seven of them for Washington-breds.

Washington Cup Day and the Grade 3, $250,000 Longacres Mile, which will be run this year Aug. 24, are the highlights of the meeting.

ARCADIA, Calif. - A narrow loss by Garden in the Rain in the Santa Ana Handicap March 22 still bothers trainer Jeff Mullins.

Ridden that day by Gary Stevens, Garden in the Rain closed from seventh to miss catching the front-running Noches de Rosa by a half-length.

"I thought she should have won," Mullins said. "Gary thought she'd be good going to the lead. I thought she'd be better laying off of them. If I'd let Gary do what he wanted, she might have won."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Queen's Plate winter-book favorite Wando unexpectedly lost to Gulfstream shipper Majestic Wisdom when he returned from a layoff March 30 in the restricted Achievement Handicap.

Saturday at Woodbine in the Woodstock Stakes, an open six-furlong race worth $135,875, Wando will have to deal with another talented Gulfstream invader in Mazengah.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The purse for Saturday's seven-furlong Hallandale Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park is $75,000, although the six 3-year-olds in the field could have been brought together for the $36,000 purse of a second-level allowance race.

All six are still eligible for their second-level allowance condition, including likely favorite Cajun Beat and the horse to beat, Get Smarter. Lex Luthier, Formal Charade, Springfield Boy, and Jack Black and Ice round out the field.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - When jockey Roberto Gonzalez climbs aboard Presidio Heights in Saturday's six-furlong $60,000-added Atherton Handicap at Bay Meadows, he knows what to expect.

Presidio Heights will bolt from the gate, cut out fast fractions, and try to defeat five rivals wire to wire, much as he did in winning the six-furlong Danville Handicap on March 22 at Golden Gate Fields.

"That's the fastest I've ever been on a horse, and I've ridden a lot of fast horses," Gonzalez said after that race.

Of course, he had never gone a half-mile in 42.89 seconds before.

EAST BOSTON, Mass. - Virgin Voyage, who is based in New York for owner Paraneck Stable and trainer Jennifer Pedersen, figures to be a strong force at Suffolk Downs in Saturday's $35,000 Helena Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going one mile.

She was shipped to Turfway Park for her last start, the Bourbonette Stakes, and finished fourth after racing wide.

Virgin Voyage finished third, beaten a neck, in the Busher Stakes two starts back. Her earnings of $97,740 is easily the highest of anyone in the Helena field and she also has the highest recent Beyer Speed Figure.

AUBURN, Wash. - Among the most anticipated appearances on Saturday's opening-day program at Emerald Downs is that of Bisbee's Prospect, who will be among the favorites in the featured U.S. Bank Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs.

Bisbee's Prospect was so impressive in her 5 1/2-furlong debut last July, which she won by more than eight lengths in 1:03.80, that she was bet down to 3-5 next time out in the one-mile Barbara Shinpoch Stakes. She finished third and has not raced since.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - It will be a Good Friday indeed for fans at Aqueduct as champion Storm Flag Flying makes her long-awaited 3-year-old debut in the Grade 3, $100,000 Comely Stakes at one mile.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Mr. Fix takes on six other $3,200 claimers in the one-mile feature Friday at Portland Meadows.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - With the birth of his son, jockey John Velazquez has had a lot of sleepless nights the last two weeks. He has also had a lot of time to think.

Velazquez can't help but think how good Storm Flag Flying can be if she puts her mind on business. Last year, Velazquez guided an immature Storm Flag Flying through an undefeated, championship campaign that ended with a thrilling half-length victory in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Arlington Park.