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.

Doubly Fun and Lady Cherie are hard to look past in Sunday's $45,000 Ms. Southern Ohio Stakes at River Downs in Cincinnati. Eleven will start in the 1 1/16-mile turf race for statebred fillies and mares.

Doubly Fun, the winner of the Ms. Southern Ohio the last two years, appears to be better than Lady Cherie on the grass. In addition to her Ms. Southern Ohio wins, Doubly Fun also won an allowance race over this course on June 28. Coming off of an eight-month absence, Doubly Fun won by 5 1/4 lengths.

Speed, speed, speed. There will be no shortage of it Sunday at Louisiana Downs in the $40,000 Rebel, a six-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies that drew a field of front-runners, including the promising Itsmybag.

Itsmybag has won her last two starts by a combined 11 lengths, and with a 2-for-3 career record is the winningest member of the six-horse Rebel.

In her most recent race July 21, Itsmybag set a pressured pace in an allowance race before drawing out to a 6 1/2-length win. Before that race, she wired Louisiana-bred maidens by 4 1/2 lengths July 7.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - Trainer Greg Gilchrist cringes when someone suggests he has a sure thing with Taraval in Sunday's $40,000-added Redwood Empire Stakes at the Sonoma County Fair.

"Obviously, I'll be the favorite," he said of the likely betting on the 5 1/2-furlong race for

2-year-olds.

On paper, Taraval looks as strong a favorite as Black Ruby, who will try to avenge last year's loss to Taz in the $12,500 Santa Rosa Mule Championship.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Todd Pletcher's worst fears were realized while Bobby Frankel's greatest concern was alleviated on Thursday at the post position draw for Saturday's $750,000 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga.

The Grade 1 Whitney drew the expected stars Street Cry, Lido Palace, Macho Uno, Left Bank, and Unshaded. But, it was the inclusion of Saint Verre that gave Pletcher, the trainer of Left Bank, angst, while providing Frankel, trainer of Lido Palace, relief.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Two years later, you can still hear the irritation in Eoin Harty's voice.

Harty was the trainer of Street Cry during his 2-year-old season. After winning his maiden by seven lengths in his second career start, Street Cry was narrowly defeated in a pair of graded stakes by the Bob Baffert-trained Flame Thrower.

Automatically, Street Cry was branded as a hanger, a horse who wouldn't go by other horses in the stretch.