The Breeders' Cup will come a day early for Bien Nicole.

After winning four races in a row, Bien Nicole is being sent to Arlington Park later this month for the $100,000 Estrapade Handicap, to be run Oct. 25, the day before the World Thoroughbred Championships.

Bien Nicole defeated male rivals Sunday in the $150,000 DeBartolo Memorial Breeders' Cup Turf at Remington Park.

"I thought [her race] was outstanding," said Donnie Von Hemel, who trains Bien Nicole. "She beat tougher horses than she's ever run against, horses like Maysville Slew and Candid Glen."

NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Five new state-of-the-art, all-weather barns, each of which will house 34 horses, were completed here last week. The barns are the biggest capital improvement made at Thistledown since Magna Entertainment purchased the track four years ago.

The open-air barns have two rows of 17 stalls positioned back to back, with the front of each stall facing a 12-foot-wide shed row walking area - wider than at most tracks - that circles the barn.

Seven Four Seven hadn't won a race in more than six months and was beaten nearly 31 lengths in her last two starts. A return to the main track at Mountaineer Park, where she had delivered two solid second-place finishes earlier this season, helped Seven Four Seven improve dramatically.

A 4-year-old filly trained by Bernie Flint and ridden by Chad Murphy, Seven Four Seven ($7) romped to a 10 1/2-length victory in Tuesday night's $77,300 Autumn Leaves Handicap. Her time for 1 1/16 miles was 1:47.61.

The second annual Illinois Day at Fairmount Park on Tuesday consisted of six $35,000 stakes and provided chalk players with an opportunity to cash in, as five of the races were won by heavy favorites.

The lone "longshot" of the day was Cash the Flash in the All Sold Out Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, who returned $6.20 under Carlos SIlva. She was saddled by Richard Hazelton.

ARCADIA, Calif. - In the clearest indication of how far Truly a Judge has come in the last year, the $10,000 supplemental fee to make him eligible for Sunday's $500,000 Goodwood Breeders' Cup Handicap is half of what a three-man partnership paid to claim him.

In the last 12 months, owners Gaylord Ailshie, Alan Aidekman, and Tom Harris have watched the 4-year-old gelding Truly a Judge win 4 of 10 starts and his first stakes - the $150,000 Claiming Crown Jewel at Philadelphia Park in August - and earn $218,180.

ELMONT, N.Y. - A pair of horses who could go off favorites in their respective allowance races Thursday could be worth playing against on a decent card at Belmont Park.

Tap Dance, a Grade 2 winner as a 3-year-old, may go favored in a five-horse field entered in the third, a money allowance race going nine furlongs on the main track.

CHICAGO - Bien Sur will face a better class of horse at a distance farther than she has ever raced, but the filly's comeback win here Aug. 30 suggests the obstacles won't keep her down in Arlington's featured eighth race Thursday.

Bien Sur faces seven rivals, and one of them, Good Humor, has won allowance races as easily as Bien Sur. But while Bien Sur raced five weeks ago, Good Humor hasn't been out in almost 11 months, and for her return she races under the $50,000 claiming option that's part of the conditions of this third-level allowance.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Six starts into her career, the maiden filly Small Town Girl has lost most of her allies.

It's nothing new. Horseplayers allow for some imperfections, but following two losses by Small Town Girl at Hollywood Park and four at Del Mar, many bettors reached the conclusion that Small Town Girl simply cannot run.

Or, can she?

"She's better than that," trainer Bob Baffert said. "I think she hated Del Mar. The track was deep and loose and she couldn't go anywhere."

ELMONT, N.Y. - Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes will be the third race in five weeks for Pretty Wild. That explains why trainer Stanley Hough says Pretty Wild will have to do something extraordinary to convince him and owner Einar Robsham to go on to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile later this month at Arlington Park.

ARCADIA, Calif. - A downbeat consensus regarding the quality of the Grade 2 Norfolk Stakes is one reason two longshot contenders may join the field of 2-year-olds racing 1 1/16 miles on Saturday. Although Manhattan Express and Oberwald have won stakes, they would be Norfolk outsiders against Kafwain, Bull Market, and Listen Indy.

Manhattan Express won the $50,000 Gateway to Glory Stakes by more than seven lengths Sept. 26 at Fairplex Park, and trainer A.C. Avila said the colt came out of the race so well he may wheel him right back.