EDMONTON, Alberta - The highlights of the long Labor Day weekend here at Northlands Park were two stakes races for 2-year-olds, and the results were hauntingly similar.

It started on Saturday in the $50,000 Bird of Pay Stakes for 2-year-old fillies. Raylene, a Kentucky-bred, was the prohibitive favorite after a spectacular performance in the Princess Margaret four weeks earlier, where she easily handled a strong field.

Raylene drew three-wide at the quarter pole, and at the top of the lane she was ahead by five lengths.

AUBURN, Wash. - Trainer Larry Pierce will saddle a pair in Friday's Emerald Downs feature, a six-furlong race for $32,000 juvenile fillies that has drawn a field of six.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Godolphin, whose accomplishments in the international racing world are without equal, has been disappointed in its first two cracks at the $1 million Atto Mile.

Cape Cross, the outfit's first runner in the Grade 1 turf feature, finished sixth at 7-1 in 1999 and Muhtathir ran fifth at 4-1 the following season.

But the stable's record of failure could change in Sunday's Atto Mile when Noverre, a Group 1 winner of $1,311,097, runs under regular rider Frankie Dettori for Godolphin master Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum and trainer Saeed bin Suroor.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Saturday's Spectacular Bid Stakes for 2-year-old colts was thrown wide open with the news that Echeverria won't run in the race. Second in the Ellis Park Juvenile to the highly regarded colt Private Gold, Echeverria was thought to be headed to the Spectacular Bid, but John Good, the Kentucky-based assistant to trainer Bob Baffert, said Wednesday that Echeverria wouldn't ship to Arlington this weekend.

It doesn't seem to matter if the race is run in the mud or over the grass. Watchman's Warning owns the Capital City Handicap.

The 7-year-old Watchman's Warning, trained by Scott Lake, won the $30,575 Capital City at Penn National for the third straight year.

The past two seasons, the 1 1/16-mile race was moved from the turf course to a sloppy main track. This time, rain softened the course, but it was usable.

MUSKEGON, Mich. - Terry Houghton, Great Lakes Downs's leading rider and second in the nation in wins, was transferred to Beaumont Hospital in Detroit for additional testing on Tuesday.

Houghton, hospitalized with a severe concussion after a spill on Aug. 25, said that he did not yet have a date to return to riding.

"Four doctors - four opinions," he said Monday evening from his Muskegon hospital bed. "I hope to have an answer after talking to the specialists back home. I want to get back as soon as I can."

COLUMBUS, Neb. - Last week's Nebraska Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association elections resulted in a new president for the state horsemen's group. Don Everett assumed the post of president on Thursday.

He replaces Robert E. "Red" Lee, who has served as president of the organization for more than 25 years. Lee remains on the board and will oversee the operations of Horsemen's Park in Omaha and Horsemen's Atokad Downs in South Sioux City.

"I will definitely dive into this," Everett said. "I look forward to getting active as a team."

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Canterbury Park, which concluded a 61-day meeting on Monday, posted gains in attendance and simulcast wagering but had its handle decrease from the previous two seasons.

Ontrack attendance totaled 265,383 for the season, a daily average of 4,350, and an 8 percent increase over last season's daily average of 4,010.

Total handle on Canterbury's races was $26,512,324, an average of $434,628 per day. That figure was down 8 percent from the $29,022,584 and average of $475,780 wagered during last year's 61-day meet.

LAFAYETTE, La. - After a promising start in the spring, a slow month of August pulled the final totals for the 82-day Evangeline Downs meet into negative territory compared to a year ago. Although down, Evangeline's night time simulcast signal is far from out as it remains one of the stronger signals in Louisiana and Texas.

All sources handle of $108,587,180 was wagered on the Evangeline product this season for an average of $1,324,234 per day. Those figures represent a 3 percent decrease from last year's total of $111,813,783 with an average daily handle of $1,363,668.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Here come the girls from Ipanema. Trainer Eduardo Inda sends out a pair of mares from Brazil at Del Mar in Thursday's featured $75,000 Thoroughbred Owners of California Inc. Handicap, a name that takes almost as long to say as it will for the race to be run.