DEL MAR, Calif. - A few horse vans rolled through the stable area. Most of the stalls in the barns were empty, their residents having already been shipped to Santa Anita. Grooms still on location took their belongings from their tack rooms and had them outside, awaiting loading onto horse vans. Few trainers were around, most having decided to go to Kentucky for Keeneland's yearling sale. One day before Del Mar's closing-day card, the meet looked all but over.

AUBURN, Wash. - Asked when he knew when he would win Sunday's Belle Roberts Handicap with Top Bracket, rider Gallyn Mitchell had a ready answer.

"When the overnight came out on Friday," he said.

Jockeys should have that kind of confidence. Few handicappers who weighed the probable pace scenario for the 1 1/8-mile Belle Roberts at Emerald Downs could share it, however. The tiny field of five included just one horse with early speed, the very tractable Graceful Cat, and Top Bracket has just one way of going.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Touch of the Blues, an unlucky fifth here in last Sunday's Atto Mile for trainer Neil Drysdale, will remain here until the end of the month along with assistant trainer Robert Guest and groom Gerardo Olvera.

"He'll stay here and train," said Guest, adding that Touch of the Blues probably will run next in Keeneland's Grade 1, $600,000 Shadwell Turf Mile on Oct. 6.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Beginning with Silver Charm in 1996, and continuing in subsequent years with Souvenir Copy, Worldly Manner, Forest Camp, Flame Thrower, and Officer, trainer Bob Baffert has swept the last six runnings of the Grade 2 Del Mar Futurity. No other trainer has won this race six times, let alone six in a row.

DEL MAR, Calif. - This is a starting five that even the Lakers might envy. Trainer Bob Baffert has five runners in Wednesday's $250,000 Del Mar Futurity, and they very well may be the first five betting choices in the Grade 2 race that highlights closing day of the 43-day summer season.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Black Ruby, the popular racing mule, can add Del Mar to the list of tracks she has conquered.

In an exhibition match race held after the program on Sunday, Black Ruby easily beat Taz, her arch-rival from the northern California fair circuit.

Ridden by Jim Burns, Black Ruby was always in front. She had a half-length lead on Taz at the eighth pole and won by two lengths in 23.35 seconds despite drifting out during the stretch of the 400-yard race.

DEL MAR, Calif. - It has taken longer than expected, but Zanapour has developed into a stakes-caliber turf miler this year for trainer Julio Canani.

Two wins in allowance races at Del Mar earlier this summer make Zanapour the likely favorite in Wednesday's $75,000 Live the Dream Handicap. The program also includes the $70,000 California Equine Retirement Foundation Handicap for fillies and mares over six furlongs. Both races are part of the undercard on a closing day program highlighted by the $250,000 Del Mar Futurity.

Delta Downs, a small track in Vinton, La., that opened a slots casino in February, hopes to lure some of the nation's top 2-year-olds to town Dec. 21 for a newly created $500,000 stakes that has yet to be named.

The one-mile race will be the richest the track has ever staged for Thoroughbreds.

The only two 2-year-old races "that are going to be worth the same or more are the Champagne and the Breeders' Cup," said Chris Warren, director of racing for Delta.

Mario Pino does most of his riding in Maryland these days. But he returned to his Delaware roots to celebrate his 41st birthday and a career milestone on Sunday.

Pino is a native of Wilmington, just a few miles from Delaware Park, where he was the leading rider in 1979 and 1980. He became the 18th jockey to ride 5,000 winners by scoring twice on Delaware's Sunday program.

Dollar Bill is scheduled to be reunited with jockey Pat Day in the Kentucky Cup Classic, the centerpiece of the $950,000, five-race series that will be run Saturday at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

Day was aboard Dollar Bill last year when the colt encountered numerous troubled trips leading into, and during, the 2001 Triple Crown. Day and trainer Dallas Stewart agreed thereafter that it would be best for all involved for the colt to get a new rider, but in seven subsequent races, Dollar Bill has won just once for owners Gary and Mary West.