ELMONT, N.Y. - Proud Man gets one more chance to prove he's worthy of Breeders' Cup consideration when he runs in Sunday's $200,000 Grade 2 Jamaica Handicap at Belmont Park.

Proud Man, a winner of four Grade 3 stakes earlier this year, is coming off a fourth-place finish in the Saranac Handicap at Saratoga. It was his first race off a three-month layoff precipitated by a cut suffered on his tendon sheath while winning the Grade 3 Hill Prince here in June. Since then, he was sidetracked by a fever.

POMONA, Calif. - Assuming that Sigfreto negotiates three turns without incident on Saturday at Fairplex Park, the $100,000 Pomona Derby may play out as the biggest mismatch of the Los Angeles County Fair race meet.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Unsettled and baffling, Chicago's 2-year-old filly division begins coming to order on Saturday, with the $150,000 Arlington-Washington Lassie, Illinois's most important race of the season for juvenile fillies.

A Ransom and Tailor Fit, the past two Quarter Horse world champions, each of whom has won the prestigious Champion of Champions, meet in this year's renewal of the Grade 1, $200,000 Los Alamitos Championship at 440 yards Saturday night.

A Ransom, the 2000 world champion, is riding an eight-race winning streak that includes last year's Los Alamitos Championship and the Grade 1 Champion of Champions, which he won by a half-length as the 7-10 favorite.

NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Mercer's Launch, third in the Tah Dah Stakes in her last start here July 21, should be favored Saturday at Thistledown, matching strides with five other Ohio-bred 2-year-old fillies in the $30,000 Emerald Necklace Stakes.

Mercer's Launch won at first asking at River Downs, then was unplaced here in the Cleveland Kindergarten before her race in the Tah Dah. She has the speed to be on or near the lead and should prove hard to chase down. Jason Eads rides for trainer Jeffrey M.Williams.

Iowa-bred Nut N Better heads a field of five entered in Saturday's $50,000, 1 1/16-mile Central Iowa Stakes for fillies and mares at Prairie Meadows.

Nut N Better was Iowa's 3-year-old filly champion in 2000 and has had another good year in 2001 with a record of 3-2-1 from eight starts, and more than $134,000 in earnings. Nut N Better comes off a second-place finish against Iowa-breds in the $75,000 Donna Reed here at 1 mile and 70 yards on Sept. 1, beaten 4 1/2 lengths by loose-on-the-lead Sumthintotalkabout.

MIAMI - Many of the 2-year-olds in Saturday's $100,000 Foolish Pleasure Stakes and its filly counterpart, the Brave Raj, are using the races as preps for the rich finales of the Florida Stallion Stakes series three weeks down the road. But there will be no holding back for Juggernaut, who figures to be favored in the one mile and 70 yard Foolish Pleasure.

SOUTH SIOUX CITY, Neb. - Live racing returns to Atokad Park Saturday for the first time since October 1997 with a one-day meet featuring eight races and purses of more than $125,000. The track opened in mid-February of this year to offer full-card simulcasting.

FLORENCE, Ky. - After seven years of calling the Kentucky Cup their "$1.15 million day of champions," Turfway officials have been rather quiet about the monetary value of this eighth running of the Cup.

That's because purses have been downsized for the Cup races. The total payout Saturday will be a maximum of $950,000. When any horse ineligible for the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund or not nominated to the Breeders' Cup finishes in the top four spots, bonuses for those programs go uncollected.

FLORENCE, Ky. - Surely no one could have predicted the manner in which the Kentucky Cup has become a producer of top sprinters. Since its 1994 inaugural, the $150,000 Kentucky Cup Sprint has yielded exceptionally good horses, from Lord Carson and Appealing Skier to Reraise and Caller One.