LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The race for top trainer at Churchill Downs is highly competitive as of Wednesday, which starts the final third of the track's 30-day fall meet. Through Sunday, Carl Nafzger led the standings with 10 wins, followed by Ken McPeek and Dale Romans with nine each and Steve Asmussen with eight.

Nafzger has had the fewest starts among the leaders but is making the most of his opportunities. That theme could continue on Wednesday when Nafzger runs one horse in each of the day's two richest races on a program that starts at 12:40 p.m. Eastern.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Brass in Pocket could be money in the bank Wednesday at Woodbine in the $127,250 Classy 'N Smart, a 1 1/16-mile stakes for Ontario-sired fillies and mares.

The eight-race card also includes three other stakes - the Display, Bessarabian, and Sunny's Halo. All three races were originally scheduled for last weekend, when racing was canceled because of poor track conditions.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - If you want to get a good line on Wednesday's first race at Hollywood Park, just punch up a tape of the third race on Oct. 17 at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting. Of the five runners entered Wednesday, three are exiting the same race, including runner-up Honestly Darling.

Despite losing three programs to bad weather in the last week of the season, Delaware Park posted a gain of 6 percent for the 139-day meet, which ended Saturday, over last year's meet of the same length. Delaware handled $282,655,168 from all sources on its races, for an average of $2,033,706 a day.

Jockey Mike McCarthy, who retired at the end of the meet after 21 seasons, won his sixth Delaware riding title in the past seven years with 157 victories.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - It's beginning to look a lot like winter when a second-level allowance race restricted to New York-breds serves as the feature at Aqueduct. Such is the case Wednesday.

The seven-furlong race, which drew a full field of 11, is the final leg of the pick six, which begins the day with a $40,946 carryover.

In a fairly wide-open race, Philadelphia Park shipper Rock Queen, who returns from a layoff, may offer decent value. Rock Queen hasn't raced since May 17 when she finished a well-beaten fourth in her first attempt at this level.

LAUREL, Md. - Although Thunderello did not, as initially feared, re-tear the suspensory ligament in his left foreleg while being pulled up in Saturday's Grade 1 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash over a sloppy Laurel Park main track, the injuries he did suffer could force him to retire.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The 2002 Woodbine meeting, which will wind up Dec. 1, suddenly got even shorter after last Saturday and Sunday's cards were canceled because of unsafe track conditions.

While the majority of the 20 races will be lost forever, Woodbine will be looking to make up some of the shortfall by adding single races to each of the two remaining Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday programs. Ten-race Friday cards will be unchanged.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- Make room for another top 2-year-old in Bobby Frankel's barn.

Empire Maker, a maiden winner at Belmont Park, has gotten so much attention he even made the cover of a recent Daily Racing Form Simulcast Weekly. Might the same be accorded Ghostzapper?

ALBANY, Calif. - Jockey Frank Alvarado could make quite a splash when he makes his return to the Golden Gate Fields jockey colony on Wednesday.

Alvarado has one mount, aboard morning-line favorite Dream Machine in the feature, a 1 1/16-mile allowance race on the turf.

HOUSTON - Leo's Last Hurrahy proved he can handle two turns with a powerful 1 1/2-length win over Worker Man and Zydeco Affair in the $150,000 Sam Houston Texan Juvenile on Saturday night at Sam Houston Race Park.

The Juvenile was the lone open-company race on the Texas Champions Day program, which featured nine stakes - eight for Texas-breds - worth a combined $625,000.

Leo's Last Hurrahy, the 4-5 favorite and a Texas-bred, raced well off the pace early, began to pick up steam on the final turn, and closed fast to win the 1 1/16-mile race over a fast track in 1:45.90.