SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Friday's $5,000 Graceful Klinchit Distaff Handicap for fillies and mares is named after Marquis Downs's all-time winningest mare, who ended her career with 28 victories. But at the rate Ms. Lady Rose is winning, that record could be in jeopardy. A 4-year-old, Ms. Lady Rose has won 10 of 16 career starts including eight of her last 11.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Miss Noire makes her local debut in Friday's feature, an allowance race for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles, and will be the one to beat as she faces four rivals.

A winner of two stakes races last year at Woodbine, Miss Noire has one win from six starts this season, that success coming over allowance company at Fort Erie two starts ago.

Now trained by Tom Dodds, Miss Noire will be ridden by Jerry Pruitt and breaks from post 3.

The other entrants in Friday's feature all come out of the Aug. 5 Jack Hardy Stakes.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sweetest Thing, who had been a candidate for Monday's Glens Falls Handicap at Saratoga, will not be making the trip there for that race.

Roger Attfield, who trains Sweetest Thing for the Lael Stable of Roy and Gretchen Jackson, already had ruled out the Saratoga race and was considering Saturday's Belle Geste at Woodbine but had to scrap that scenario as well.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Flaming Sky, a surprising second in the 2001 Breeders' Stakes, could win his maiden in Friday's finale at Woodbine.

The 1 1/16-mile turf race is a split of a maiden special weight race for 3- and 4-year-olds. Eight races were carded Friday, instead of the usual 10, mainly because of a virus that has hit Woodbine's horse population hard this month.

Three-time futurity winner Zip First, who was not entered in the trials to the $2 million All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs on Aug. 15, will run in the trials to the Grade 1, $316,000 Sam Houston Futurity at 400 yards on Friday night at Sam Houston Race Park.

Zip First, owned by Gary Hartstack, won the Grade 1, $565,000 Ruidoso Futurity on June 9 and was second in the Grade 1, $640,225 Rainbow Futurity on July 21 at Ruidoso Downs. Earlier this year he won the Grade 2, $191,080 Manor Downs Futurity and the Grade 2, $119,200 Longhorn Futurity.

Missme, who has become a two-time stakes winner since changing his running style, has joined the lineup for the Grade 3, $250,000 Oklahoma Derby on Sunday, bringing the number of definite starters for the 1 1/8-mile race to six. There are also three horses considered possible for the race, which is the richest of the meet at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.

Jim Dandy winner and Belmont Stakes runner-up Medaglia d'Oro, who is expected to be the heavy favorite in Saturday's 133rd running of the Grade 1, $1 million Travers, was installed as the 2-5 morning line Travers favorite at a post position draw breakfast at Saratoga Wednesday morning.

Medaglia d'Oro, trained by Bobby Frankel, drew post five in the nine-horse field and will be ridden by Jerry Bailey.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Ken McPeek may have been the second happiest trainer on the Saratoga grounds last Saturday when Farda Amiga won the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes off a 106-day layoff.

That gave McPeek even more impetus - and confidence - to continue to point Repent to this Saturday's $1 million Travers Stakes. Come Saturday, it will be 140 days - exactly 20 weeks - since Repent last raced, finishing second to War Emblem in the Illinois Derby on April 6.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - With no stakes scheduled on Thursday at Saratoga, a first-level allowance for 2-year-old fillies will be the feature.

The $47,000 allowance, the eighth on a nine-race card, drew seven fillies, including an Steve Asmussen-trained entry, Big Score and Spinning Wind. But on Tuesday morning, Asmussen's assistant, Scott Blasi, said Spinning Wind would be scratched from the six-furlong race because she had an elevated temperature and left behind some food in her feed tub.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Just as his stable star, Temis, has found a niche in racing, so too has William "Steve" Greene found a niche in the racing industry.