CHICAGO - Trainer Frank Kirby's best months come in the spring, during the meets at Sportsman's and Hawthorne. But with King Cielo, Kirby might have a colt that could do some damage this summer at Arlington.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The two races that Teresa Ann ran last fall do not seem like the efforts of the same filly.

After winning a maiden race in her debut at Santa Anita in October, she finished ninth in the Moccasin Stakes at Hollywood a month later. She was later diagnosed with a breathing disorder that required surgery.

EDMONTON, Alberta - The amazing story of Sixthirtyjoe keeps getting better.

Sixthirtyjoe, a small bay colt purchased for $100 by Deanne Davies, went on a tear last year at Northlands Park, winning $85,074, including the $33,000 Western Canada Handicap.

The story continued in the spring meet at Calgary, where Sixthirtyjoe won the $40,000 Teeworth Plate and $40,000 Stampede Park Sprint, earning $56,415 along the way.

Sixthirtyjoe made his 2002 Northlands debut Saturday, winning the $40,000 Journal.

CHICAGO - The best stakes so far this meet, Saturday's Grade 2 Arlington Classic, is shaping up the way it should - as the best stakes so far this meet.

The first leg of Arlington's Mid-America Triple, the series of grass races for 3-year-olds that culminates in the Grade 1 Secretariat, the Classic had five probable and many possible starters as of Monday. Leading the list of probables are Jeremiah Jack, who is training at Arlington, and Doc Holiday, a California-based colt.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Already weakened by the defection of Take Charge Lady, Saturday's Mother Goose Stakes took another hit Monday when trainer Neil Drysdale confirmed that Bella Bellucci will skip the Grade 1 race due to a slight injury.

"She's got a sore muscle in her back,'' Drysdale said from his barn at Hollywood Park. "No big deal. It's left over from the race where she couldn't handle the track.''

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Azeri, the undisputed leader among the West Coast's older fillies, will not leave California until the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Arlington Park in October.

Trainer Laura de Seroux has mapped out a tentative plan over the next few months that includes stakes at Del Mar and Oak Tree at Santa Anita.

On Sunday, de Seroux said that Azeri emerged from her win in Saturday's Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park in excellent shape. The Vanity was Azeri's fourth consecutive Grade 1 win; earlier at this meeting, Azeri won the Grade 1 Milady Breeders' Cup Handicap.

PLEASANTON, Calif. - Northern California's summer fair racing circuit moves to the Alameda County Fair for the next 12 days beginning Wednesday, and nobody could be happier than Bullwinkle.

No horse in the history of the Alameda County Fair has been to the starting gate more times than Bullwinkle, a 41-year-old former pony horse, or logged more miles around the track.

He is a fixture at the fair and will be paraded in front of the grandstand this year.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Nearly 10 months after her last race, jockey Patti Cooksey will return to the saddle Wednesday when she rides Gold Empress in the fourth race at Churchill Downs.

Cooksey, 44, underwent breast-cancer surgery last September.

"I'm so excited, I feel like a bug girl," said Cooksey. "I just want to get back into action. I watch a race, and it drives me crazy. I want that thrill of competition again."

Lady of the Future and Calista both are late-running turf fillies who sometimes get stopped in traffic.

Lady of the Future got a clean trip in Monday's $100,000 New Castle Handicap at Delaware Park. Calista, the 2-5 favorite, did not.

That explains how Lady of the Future ($17) scored a three-quarter-length victory in the 1 1/8-mile turf race while Calista managed to cross the wire only third in a field reduced to six fillies and mares by five scratches.

PLEASANTON, Calif. - Trainers entering horses at the Alameda County Fair between July 1 and July 7 will receive an additional $45 starter fee to help offset increases in Workers' Compensation rates scheduled to take place July 1.

The payment will be in effect for the 2002 meet only.