GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - John Velazquez and Corey Lanerie locked up the final two berths in the National Thoroughbred All-Star Jockey Championship at Lone Star Park on June 21 over the weekend. Velazquez won an online poll to get into the four-race competition, while Lanerie earned a place by topping the standings at Lone Star at the close of racing Sunday.

ALTOONA, Iowa - Mc Mahon kicked clear entering the second turn under jockey Ken Shino and the pair maintained their advantage to the wire to score a two-length victory over E Z Glory in the $100,000 Precisionist Handicap at Prairie Meadows.

Mc Mahon dueled outside of It's Roo through a first half-mile run in 46.83 seconds before taking command. Mc McMahon covered the 1 1/16 miles in a stakes-record 1:41.65.

The victory was Mc Mahon's fifth from 15 career starts. A 4-year-old son of Salt Lake, Mc Mahon has now earned more than $215,000 for owner-trainer Michele Boyce.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The difference between the Plate Trial and the Queen's Plate can be a lot greater than three weeks and a furlong.

Just ask trainer John Ross, who sent out Catahoula Parish to win the 1 1/8-mile Plate Trial for the Jam-Jar Racing Stable of Bud and Jackie Reynolds here in 1999 only to watch him finish seventh in the 1 1/4-mile Plate, which was worth $500,000.

Ross and the Reynoldses, also the connections of this year's Plate hopeful Shaws Creek, are well aware that the last horse to win both the Trial and the Plate was Alydeed in 1992.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Jockey Robby Albarado may be out of action only two to three weeks with a broken finger and lacerated hand after escaping major injury in a frightening spill Sunday at Churchill Downs.

Albarado was en route to an apparent victory in the fourth race aboard Maestro when the 3-year-old colt suddenly broke down in deep stretch, spilling Albarado. Two trailing horses, including Clear Title, ridden by Pat Day, appeared to strike Albarado.

"Considering everything, he was very fortunate," Albarado's agent, Lenny Pike Jr., said Monday morning.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Keep an eye on Mike Mareina the rest of the meet at Lone Star Park. The trainer, who is winning races at a more than 25-percent clip in his first meet here, said his 28-horse stable has something left in the tank for the second half of the meet, which runs through July 14.

"I want to try and win about 10 races this next month," said Mareina, whose barn has already racked up nine wins at Lone Star to rank sixth in the standings behind leader Cole Norman.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Last May, Rene Douglas was at home in south Florida. It may never be known who called whom first, but somehow, Douglas and jockey agent Dennis Cooper talked, and what they talked about was Douglas spending the summer at Arlington. Douglas wavered, then dove in.

"I didn't know if I'd make it in time for the meet," Douglas said last week from Churchill, where he has had a solid meet. "I got there one day before it started. Things were a little slow at first, because people did not know me, but then we got going."

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Wrong. If Jerry Hollendorfer subscribed to that homespun philosophy, he wouldn't have 50 horses in Chicago right now, ready to attack the Arlington meet, which starts Wednesday. He wouldn't have been the leading trainer here last summer, and his operation could have begun stagnating, locked into the outpost of northern California, where summer racing means fair circuits and a lack of opportunities for turf horses.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Three times during the 1990's a Triple Crown was on the line and fans flocked to Belmont Park, including 1999 when a record crowd of 85,818 witnessed Lemon Drop Kid deny Charismatic his Triple Crown.

The last two runnings of the Belmont Stakes drew healthy crowds - 67,810 and 73,857 - even though no Triple Crown was in the offing.

The strong attendance in 2000 and 2001 may be because of New York Racing Association's efforts over the past several years to turn the Belmont Stakes into a major event in the New York metro area.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens is nothing if not unconventional.

While virtually all of the other trainers have worked or will work their Belmont Stakes horses at distances from four to six furlongs, Jerkens on Monday sent out Puzzlement, the Peter Pan runner-up, for a nine-furlong move that was clocked in 1.55.02 over Belmont's main track.

"I never won one of these things, so I must stupid," the self-deprecating Jerkens said. "But I can't get it through my head what a short work does for a horse that has to go long."

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Ronny Werner said that last year's Grade 1 Haskell Invitational, in which his Touch Tone was narrowly beaten by eventual Horse of the Year Point Given, was the most exciting race he has ever been involved in. Before and after the race, Werner said that he liked his first visit to the Jersey Shore so much that he might decide to bring a stable here.