ELMONT, N.Y. - As Patrol sped his way to victory in a May 11 maiden turf race at Belmont Park, it was hard not to think about another Claiborne Farm horse from a decade ago.

It was in the fall of 1992 that Lure launched his turf career, winning a 1 1/16-mile allowance race at Belmont. He would go on to win back-to-back runnings of the Breeders' Cup Mile.

Saturday, Patrol will try to prove he is worthy of running in the Breeders' Cup Mile when he runs in Saturday's $350,000 Kelso Handicap, a race Lure won in 1993.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Larry Ross was encouraged as he surveyed the nomination list for Saturday's $100,000 California Sprint Championship at Bay Meadows.

The six-furlong sprint drew 10 nominees, and nine of the 10 routinely run the opening half-mile in the 44-second range.

Radar Contact, trained by Ross, is the lone true closer among the nominees.

"There appears to be a lot of speed," he said.

But, Ross added, Radar Contact is coming off a "bad race."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - An improving 3-year-old in the fall can be very dangerous facing older rivals, as English invader Ballingarry proved at Woodbine in last Sunday's Canadian International.

A locally based runner will put the theory to the test here Saturday when Early Wisdom, who is coming off an impressive win in the 1 1/8-mile Colonel R.S. McLauglin here Sept. 14, faces his elders over the same distance in the Durham Cup.

ANDERSON, Ind. - Judging by the number of horses entered for Saturday night's $400,000 Indiana Derby, the race has earned its new Grade 3 status.

A total of 14 horses were entered Wednesday in Hoosier's 1 1/16-mile showcase race, but only 12 were assigned post positions; the other two horses were excluded. Races are normally limited to 10 starters over Hoosier Park's seven-eighth-mile oval but the limit is raised to 12 for stakes.

Significant Speed, coming off a win in the All American Gold Cup, tops a strong group of Texas-breds in the B.F. Phillips Jr. Handicap when the Lone Star Park fall Quarter Horse season, called the Fall Meeting of Champions, starts on Friday night.

MIAMI - The final legs of the Florida Stallion Stakes, the $400,000 In Reality and My Dear Girl Stakes, will command most of the attention on the Oct. 12 Festival of the Sun program. But the undercard should be a beauty, featuring five six-figure stakes, including the $200,000 Calder Derby and its filly counterpart, the $200,000 Calder Oaks.

Three $50,000 stakes, the Manila, Princeton, and Salem County, support the $400,000 Meadowlands Cup on a 10-race card on Friday evening.

A fourth stakes, the $50,000 Seton Hall, failed to draw enough entries and was scrapped.

The most interesting undercard stakes is the Manila, a 1 3/8-mile grass race for 3-year-olds and up. The Manila, which drew 12 runners, plus one main-track only, K.O.'s Crypto, will be run as the ninth race, following The Meadowlands Cup.

Eltawaasul, last year's Manila winner, has been entered by trainer Pat Reynolds.

CHICAGO - A Nebraska-bred who made her way to Arlington late this summer by way of Canterbury Park in Minnesota, Oglala Sue was dismissed by most as a hick from the sticks when she raced in a tough optional-claiming sprint here Sept. 18. Provincial she is not. Oglala Sue beat the city crowd by more than a length that day, and Friday she is back for more in Arlington's featured eighth race.

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.