SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Nick Zito missing the Kentucky Derby is like the New York Yankees missing the playoffs.

But twice in the last three years Zito has been a spectator for the nation's most prestigious horse race, a race Zito won twice in the early 1990's and one in which he has run 12 horses since 1990. Zito missed this year's Derby because a number of his promising juveniles from a year ago suffered a variety of infirmities.

"A lot of people know us for that reason," Zito said of his two Derby and one Preakness victory. "So it was a little disappointing."

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Mandy's Gold brought her road show to Saratoga on Friday and once again played to rave reviews, leading throughout to post a 1 3/4-length victory over Shine Again in the $100,000 Honorable Miss Handicap. Gold Mover, the 3-2 favorite in a field of six fillies and mares, finished a non-threatening fourth in the Grade 3 race, run over a sloppy track.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Cathy's Star and Miss Sandy Dee will be meeting for the third time at Assiniboia Downs in Sunday's $30,000 Winnipeg Sun Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles.

Miss Sandy Dee was 2 3/4 lengths better than Cathy's Star when she won the 5 1/2-furlong Victoria Day Stakes in their first encounter here May 20.

But Cathy's Star turned the tables on Miss Sandy Dee here July 1, winning the one-mile Canada Day by a half-length.

AUBURN, Wash. - Handy N Bold has won the last three runnings of the $60,000 Governor's Handicap, which will be contested on Sunday. He will not win the 6 1/2-furlong race for a fourth straight time.

"He chipped an ankle in a workout, and we had the chip removed last Thursday," said his trainer, Charles Essex. "He is out for the year."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Le Cinquieme Essai, the winner of Fort Erie's July 21 Prince of Wales, was one of the leading candidates for next Saturday's $500,000 Breeders' Stakes, but he will not be keeping that date.

Paul Nielsen, who trains Le Cinquieme Essai at Fort Erie for owner Bill Scott, said Le Cinquieme Essai had "spiked a temperature of 103" here Friday morning. Nielsen had brought Le Cinquieme Essai to Woodbine Tuesday to prepare for the $500,000 Breeders', the 1 1/2-mile turf race that is the final leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Attest, who beat everybody but a streaking Bonus Back in the Grade 3 Dominion Day Handicap, should be tough in Sunday's $136,875 Seagram Cup Stakes at Woodbine.

The 1 1/16-mile fixture has also lured Win City and A Fleets Dancer, both 2001 Canadian champions who have struggled this year.

Attest, a son of Affirmed, has run four solid races at the meeting for trainer Lorne Richards. He launched his campaign by running second in an $80,000 optional claimer, and then blew away $100,000 opponents.

CHICAGO - It's not that easy to grind out a good living training horses at Fairmount Park in southern Illinois. Purses are on the upswing again, though at Fairmount something like a $20,000 purse is a pretty big pot indeed, and lower-level claimers rule the circuit.

But Ron Brandenburg does not have the usual concerns of a Fairmount-based trainer. Instead, he has Tic N Tin.

SALEM, N.H. - Sunday's $100,000 Spicy Living Stakes will likely give trainer Bill Mott a sweep of the major stakes at Rockingham this year. The Mott-trained Stylish, who won the Rock Breeders' Cup Handicap a month ago, is scaring away most challengers for the 1 1/8-mile turf race.

The return to New Hamsphire will give several horses another chance to try Stylish after her four-length win in the July 4 Rock Breeders' Cup. But it's faint hope for those trying to keep her from becoming the fifth runner to pull the Rock B.C./Spicy Living double.

COLUMBUS, Neb. - The last of the Nebraska Breeders' Sweepstakes races will be run Sunday. The Sophomore and Sophomore Fillies, each with a $15,000-estimated purse, will end the series that began in 1990 at Ak-Sar-Ben.

The Breeders' Sweepstakes program has been in the process of being phased out over the past few years. Sunday's fields of 3-year-olds represent the final foal crop registered under the old program.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Impressive maiden winner Joy Shannon faces five other Minnesota-bred 2-year-olds in the $35,000-added Minnesota Juvenile Sprint at Canterbury Park.

The 5 1/2-furlong sprint serves as a prep for the Minnesota Northern Lights Futurity and Minnesota Northern Lights Debutante, which will be contested as part of Minnesota Festival of Champions Day Aug. 25.