OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Tim Hills has clearly established himself as the top grass trainer at Monmouth Park this meet, leading all trainers with 11 turf victories, but his skill on that surface really shines when he turns dirt horses, especially sprinters, into solid turf horses at longer distances.

Cowboy Stuff, who could prove to be the controlling speed in the $250,000-added Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park on Sunday, drew post 7 for the 1 1/8-mile race.

Nine will start in the Oklahoma Derby, which goes as the seventh race on a nine-race card that begins at 2:30 p.m. Post for the derby is 5:20.

Trainer Tommie Morgan is happy to get Front Nine back to racing with straight 3-year-olds Saturday night in the $30,000 Battle of the Alamo Stakes at Retama Park.

In his last start, Front Nine took on older and finished fourth in the $30,000 Straus at Retama.

"I thought it was a good, even effort for him," Morgan said. "He was with older horses, and his race was respectable."

Since the Straus, which was won by Boots on Sunday, Front Nine has worked a bullet five furlongs in 1:00.60.

Midge Too and Prized Amberpro, two of the top female sprinters in the region, will meet for the first time since last year on Saturday in the $50,000 Monique Rene Handicap at Louisiana Downs.

The six-furlong race for fillies and mares drew a field of 10, including stakes winners Taylor's Queen, Nanie's Dinner, Miss Photogenic, and the shipper Darling Deputy.

In May, Danthebluegrassman was the scourge of some racing insiders who believed it was a dirty trick for the colt to be entered, then scratched, from the Kentucky Derby, thereby precluding another horse from running in the Derby.

Several months later, Danthebluegrassman is the scourge of horseplayers who find his recent form rather confounding.

Danthebluegrassman, owned by Mike Pegram and trained by Bob Baffert, surprised most bettors June 15 at Churchill Downs by winning the Northern Dancer as the fourth choice in a field of seven.

MIAMI - Heir D'Twine, who held his own against some of the top members of the 3-year-old division earlier this season, returns to his south Florida roots for the first time on Saturday when he makes his Calder debut in the $75,000 Blazing Sword Handicap.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Edmund Gann and his wife, Bernice, have not seen much of their home in the posh Southern California community of Rancho Santa Fe this summer.

"Every weekend, for the past month we've been at Saratoga," Edmund Gann said in the Saratoga paddock Wednesday. "We've put on 7,000 [frequent flyer] miles every weekend. We decided to rent a house, we brought our maid and our family dog."

AUBURN, Wash. - Two-year-olds will take center stage at Emerald Downs on Saturday when Bub and Knightsbridge Road renew their rivalry in the $40,000 WTBA Lads Stakes, and Bisbee's Prospect heads a cast of eight in the $75,000 Barbara Shinpoch Stakes. Both races will be contested at a mile.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Four stakes highlight a big weekend of racing at Hastings Park. Saturday's 12-race card features Elana D'amour in the $50,000, 1 1/16-mile Free Vacation for 3-year-old fillies, and Raglan Road, a $100,000 purchase at the Ocala Breeders Sale this April, as a likely favorite over seven other 2-year-olds in the 6 1/2-furlong New Westminster Stakes.

AUBURN, Wash. - Colterkind and Jumron Won put in their final preps for Sunday's Grade 3, $250,000 Longacres Mile on Thursday morning at Emerald Downs, and both left their trainers smiling.

"I'd like to see him go in 35.80," said trainer Roy Lumm just moments before sending Colterkind out for a three-furlong blowout, just after the break for renovation.

A couple of minutes later, Colterkind, a winner of four straight races including the recent Governor's Handicap, flashed past the wire in precisely 35.80 seconds under regular rider Sandi Gann.