TORONTO - The 28th annual Sovereign Awards ceremony, honoring the best in Canadian Thoroughbred racing and breeding, will take place at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel here Saturday evening.

The leading candidates for the 2002 Canadian Horse of the Year title are Wake at Noon, a 5-year-old horse who is odds-on to be voted Canada's outstanding sprinter and also is a candidate for older male honors, and Added Edge, an undefeated 2-year-old colt who should get the nod in his category.

MIAMI - Band Is Passing returned a juicy $16 after rallying to an easy victory in the 2001 Tropical Turf Handicap. On Saturday, Band Is Passing will go off a lot closer to 7-5 than 7-1 when attempting to defend his title in the Grade 3 Tropical Turf, one of four stakes races on Saturday's Grand Slam I program.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - On a snowy day in the Northeast, it certainly wasn't difficult to dream about a getaway to sunny south Florida.

After he runs in Saturday's $100,000 Queens County Handicap at Aqueduct, Nothing Flat will head to Florida, where trainer Nick Zito will point him to the $1 million Sunshine Millions Classic at Gulfstream Park. The Sunshine Millions is a creation of Frank Stronach's Magna Entertainment and is a series of races that pits Florida-breds versus California-breds at both Gulfstream and Santa Anita on Jan. 25.

NEW ORLEANS - Five mornings before the Fair Grounds meet began, Corey Lanerie lay on the stretch of the racetrack here. His mount in a training race had just suffered catastrophic injuries to her front legs, and with no warning Lanerie had been slammed to the ground.

"Every time you hit it's hard, but that one was the hardest," Lanerie said. "I got up, and I tried to make myself believe I was all right, but it didn't feel that way."

HOUSTON - Trainers who came within a head of winning the Kentucky Derby don't show up at Sam Houston Race Park very often.

But Gary Capuano, who saddles Cherokee's Boy in the Great State Challenge Juvenile here on Saturday, nearly won the Derby in 1997.

AUBURN, Wash. - Eric Nelson's bid to resurrect racing at Playfair Race Course in Spokane hit a roadblock Wednesday when the Washington State Horse Racing Commission refused to grant him racing dates for next year.

The commission refused to grant Nelson's request for a 40-day meeting next year because it deemed a contract between Nelson and the track's horsemen to be invalid.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Bettors in California will no longer be able to use an alternate selection in the pick four, pick six, and pick all wagers starting on Wednesday in an effort to streamline the technology used for gathering betting information.

The policy change is being made by the racetracks in an effort to work with Autotote to send betting information from simulcast locations to a host track, racing officials said.

HOUSTON - It started in Iowa, took something of a backseat in Indiana, and now could resurface again Saturday in Texas. The budding rivalry between Easyfromthegitgo and Pass Rush, both based in Kentucky, figures to be a focal point for handicappers in the Great State Challenge Classic at Sam Houston Race Park.

HOUSTON - The melting-pot effect that the creators of the Great State Challenge hoped to achieve might be more in evidence in the Sprint than in any of the other five stakes to be run Saturday at Sam Houston Race Park.

The Sprint drew a field of eight that could have been nine if not for the defection of the California-based Disturbing-thepeace, who was declared earlier in the week because of a minor hoof ailment. Even without him, the Sprint has top contenders coming from Kentucky, Florida, Maryland, Illinois, and New York.

HOUSTON - Each of the 10 colts and geldings in the $275,000 Great State Challenge Juvenile at Sam Houston Race Park on Saturday has won at least one stakes, which makes the seven-furlong race one of the most bettable and interesting offerings on a program made up of nothing but stakes.

"It's a very competitive race," said Steve Asmussen, who will send out Grade 3 Kentucky Breeders' Cup winner Posse. "There's a lot of quality and depth to the field."