GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - In the fairy-tale career of Chris McCarron, this was the comedy before the drama, the side-splitter before the tear-jerker, the feel-good set-up to the break-you-down finale.

This was the All-Star Jockey Championship, and it was a whole lot of fun. Less than 48 hours before McCarron retired to an emotional farewell at Hollywood Park, he emerged as the winner of the sixth annual All-Star event Friday night at Lone Star Park by riding Yoto Speakes to victory in the fourth and final race of the competition.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Tom Skiffington is still trying to determine over which surface and at what distance his Irish-bred 3-year-old Rapadash will flourish. He should find out more Wednesday when he saddles Rapadash in a very competitive second-level allowance race for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles on dirt at Belmont Park.

Rapadash, who is 2 for 4 on dirt and 0 for 3 on turf, has run twice for Skiffington, winning an entry-level allowance race at Keeneland and finishing third in the Grade 3 Jersey Derby on turf at Monmouth Park.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Dream Launcher, a beaten favorite last time out, will try to avenge that loss in Wednesday's Woodbine feature, an $80,000 allowance/optional claimer for 3-year-olds and up.

Dream Launcher, the lone stakes winner in the field, won the 1 1/8-mile Victoria Park here in June of last year. After finishing fifth in his turf debut in the Charlie Barley Handicap later that month, Dream Launcher was put away for the remainder of 2001 by owner/trainer Audre Cappuccitti after undergoing ankle surgery.

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.