MIAMI, Fla. - The rains which left Calder's main track

a sea of slop for several days last week and has

closed the turf course indefinitely are gone, dampening the spirits of the

connections of I Love Chicago and Link to Jimmy, a

pair of wet-track specialists who may still vie for

favoritism in Monday's $28,000 optional-claiming-allowance feature.

I Love Chicago has posted his two most recent

victories over sloppy tracks including an impressive 2

3/4-length decision over Golden Concorde here on July

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Queen's Plate runner-up Win City overcame a slow pace to prevail as the heavy favorite in Saturday's Grade 3, $107,600 Col. R. S. McLaughlin Handicap for 3-year-olds at Woodbine.

Win City was making his first start since July 22, when he won the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie.

POMONA, Calif. - While undefeated Expected Program will be heavily favored Sunday in the $100,000 Barretts Juvenile Stakes at Fariplex Park, others see the six-and-a-half-furlong sprint as more than a one-horse race. That includes Paul Assinesi, trainer of potential upsetter Holdthehelm.

"Expected Program should be odds-on, but he's never really run the turns that well," Assenisi noted, "you just hope you're drawn inside him." Fairplex is a five-eighths mile track. Unfortunately for Assinesi, Holdtheheld drew post 6 while Expected Program drew post 3.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. The Grade 2 winner Fan Club's Mister would be a standout in most $45,000 Illinois-bred handicaps, but in Sunday's feature at Arlington he's just one of three logical contenders. Along with Minor Wisdom and Reno Rumble, Fan Club's Mister forms a powerful top end in the Tex's Zing Handicap, a handicap race for Illinois-breds to be run at 1 1/16 miles on turf.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Devastating and Moonlight Affair, who finished first and second, respectively, in the Aug. 1 Eternal Search Stakes on dirt, will renew their rivalry on turf in Sunday's $129,375 La Prevoyante, a one-mile Ontario sire stakes for 3-year-old fillies.

Devastating won two straight allowance races in the spring before finishing a dull sixth in the $500,000 Labatt Woodbine Oaks. Trainer Robbie King Jr. attributed the sub-par showing to a tight schedule.

MIAMI, Fla. - Wild Imagination, a 7-year-old who proved to be one of the better claims of the Saratoga meet, will make his local debut against six rivals, including the promising 3-year-old Marco's Word, in Sunday's $30,000 feature. The 1 1/16-mile race will be decided under optional claiming conditions.

AUBURN, Wash. - Flying Notes, one of the most impressive maiden winners at the current Emerald Downs meeting, will make his long-awaited return in Sunday's $40,000 optional claiming feature for 2-year-olds. The race has attracted a field of seven who will vie over six furlongs for a purse of $15,000.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Some of the best horses at Assiniboia Downs will square off Sunday in the $27,500 R.J. Speers Stakes when Gus Again, the top older Manitoba-bred in training, faces Kalfaari and Smoky Cinder. A field of six has been entered in the 1 1/16-mile race for 3- year-olds and upward.

Gus Again finished fourth in the Aug. 6 Wheat City in his first attempt against Kalfaari and Smoky Cinder in what is the only blemish on an otherwise perfect 2001 campaign.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Keyron, fresh off a good second in the Richmond Derby Trial Stakes on Sept. 2, could be a tepid favorite in a $50,000 optional race for 3-year-olds at Hastings Park on Sunday. But the 1 1/16-mile race is wide open and a case can be made for just about any of the seven horses entered.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Hobar, who has been working brilliantly for a comeback, will get a chance to show what he's capable of when he faces six foes in the $34,000 allowance feature at six furlongs at Bay Meadows Sunday.

Four of the seven entrants in this field have been away from the races for at least seven months, and three of those returnees - Hobar, Retro Fever, and Sempai - are top contenders.