SAN MATEO, Calif. - How much the home course advantage means could determine the outcome of Saturday's Grade 3, $200,000 Bay Meadows Breeders' Cup Handicap.

The 1 1/8-mile turf race, the premier event of the fall meeting, drew only five horses.

Unlike the four-horse field in the San Francisco Breeders' Cup Mile last spring, which included Sarafan and Decarchy, who were then the two of the highest-rated turf runners in the country, Saturday's race includes only one graded-stakes winner, David Copperfield, winner of the Grade 3 Cinema Handicap at Hollywood Park in 2000.

EDMONTON, Alberta - In addition to the featured Red Diamond Express, there are a number of other interesting races on Saturday's Alberta Fall Classic program at Northlands Park.

In the $40,000 Beaufort, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds, two horses coming out of the Canadian Derby are likely to be the favorites.

The Beaufort will be the first start for Go Go Tommy Joe since the Aug. 24 Derby, where he finished 16 1/2 lengths behind Lady Shari, and trainer Sid Gray is expecting him to return to the form that saw bettors make him one of the favorites that day.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - After arriving from Woodbine by van late Wednesday afternoon, Macho Uno spent Thursday morning getting acquainted with his temporary lodgings on Arlington Park's backstretch. Macho Uno, who breezed Monday at Woodbine, was scheduled to get his first feel for the Arlington racing surface Friday, but his status for the Sept. 29 Washington Park Handicap will not be determined until after he breezes early next week.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - Bedanken, a three-time stakes winner on dirt, makes her first start over the surface for which she was bred - turf - in the $50,000 Marie P. DeBartolo Oaks Handicap at Louisiana Downs on Saturday.

The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies tops the Super Derby undercard, and drew a field of 11, including local favorite Sheza Nasty Lady.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - All trainer Niall O'Callaghan wants for the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs on Saturday is a fast track.

He will send out the talented but lightly raced A.P. Five Hundred, who has caught muddy tracks in his last two starts, finishing third in both the $100,000 Round Table at Arlington and the Grade 3, $300,000 Oklahoma Derby at Remington.

The horses make their charge through the Kentucky Downs stretch, and judging by the camera angle, they are poised to cross the finish line.

Then, the in-house television director orders a switch from the eighth-pole camera to the finish-line camera, and, suddenly, television viewers realize that the horses still have another furlong to run.

Indeed, watching simulcast races from Kentucky Downs, "can be very deceptive for fans who aren't used to the unusual layout of this course," said Ryan Driscoll, general manager of the Franklin, Ky., track.

Except for the $300,000 Turf, no Kentucky Cup race run at Kentucky Downs ever has produced a starter for the World Thoroughbred Championships.

That trend seems likely to continue Saturday, when the four Kentucky Cup turf races are run for the fifth year at Kentucky Downs in Franklin, Ky. Although the timing of the series is quite acceptable - the 19th Breeders' Cup will be run in five weeks, on Oct. 26 at Arlington Park - none of the three supporting races appear to have attracted a horse worthy of moving on to Chicago.

Summer officially ends on Tuesday. No horse will be happier to see the seasons change than the 3-year-old filly Maliziosa.

During the spring, Maliziosa showed great promise, winning back-to-back turf stakes in Kentucky and Illinois while earning Beyer Speed Figures in the low 90's.

But when trainer Bill Mott stepped her up to face classier company during the summer, Maliziosa suddenly went sour, finishing off the board in three consecutive starts in California and New York.

Trainer Todd Pletcher is sending Tarnished Lady from her Belmont Park home across the Hudson River to The Meadowlands on Saturday evening for one reason: to get a stakes win.

Tarnished Lady will be the top money earner in a field of nine set to go in the $50,000 Summit Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at a mile and 70 yards.

Also on the card, August Storm and Libby's Halo top a 12-horse field in the $50,000 Egret for 3-year-old fillies at five furlongs on the turf.

SOUTH SIOUX CITY, Neb. - Horsemen's Atokad Downs roars back to life Saturday with more than $125,000 in purse money on the line for its one-day, eight-race meet. More than 145 horses were entered on Tuesday, but only 80 (10 per race) will start on one of Nebraska's richest days of racing.