MUSKEGON, Mich. - Secret Romeo, last year's champion Michigan-bred 2-year-old, is set to face eight other 3-year-olds in Sunday's $25,000 Wink Novotny Memorial at Great Lakes Downs. A new stakes, the seven-furlong race is named for Ed "Wink" Novotny, the popular jockey agent who died during the 2000 racing meet.

Secret Romeo is owned by A. A. C. Stables and is trained by Gerald Bennett, who was a close friend of Novotny. A 3-year-old son of Service Stripe, Secret Romeo is 6 for 8 this year, with four stakes wins, including the Dowling, Lansing, and Spartan over this surface.

COLUMBUS, Neb. - Irish Flyer will take on older rivals in Sunday's $7,000-added Bill Callihan Handicap at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Owned by Dale Kurtz and trained by Terrell Hemmer, Irish Flyer, a 3-year-old, has won six of nine starts, all this year. She won her maiden at first asking this spring at Fonner Park, won the Princess Stakes at Lincoln in May, and the Inaugural Stakes here opening night. She most recently beat older rivals in an allowance Aug. 18. Jose Figueroa rides at 116 pounds from post 6.

He was competitive against open 3-year-olds after dominating his classmates in the Ohio-bred ranks. Now it's time to see whether Unbridled Time is the equal of some of the older state-breds.

The $75,000 Governor's Buckeye Cup, to be run Sunday at River Downs in Cincinnati, is the forum in which Unbridled Time will try his elders for the first time. Trained by D. Wayne Lukas, the gray colt easily won two Ohio stakes earlier this summer before being beaten a nose in his last start, the Aug. 12 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park.

AUBURN, Wash. - Several outstanding 2-year-old fillies have emerged at the current Emerald Downs meeting, but none has stayed around long enough to take control of the division.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Bel Serenata, who tested Grade 2 foes at Del Mar on July 29, looks tough to beat at a short price when she drops into a first-level allowance race in Sunday's feature at Bay Meadows.

Six entered the mile turf race, which is restricted to 3-year-old fillies who have not won $3,000 other than maiden or claiming. The purse is $32,000.

DEL MAR, Calif. - The top three contenders in Saturday's $150,000 Palomar Handicap at Del Mar have something to prove in advance of the autumn's top races for female turf stars.

Paga, a star in Argentina, can confirm she fits in graded stakes in this country. Tout Charmant is attempting to regain her outstanding form of 1999 and 2000, while Tranquility Lake is trying to win consecutive races for the first time since last fall.

The trio gives the Grade 2 Palomar, which is run over 1 1/16 miles on turf, the feel of a Grade 1.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Patrick Biancone shipped Mayakovsky out of California in part to avoid facing the West Coast's top juveniles. Little did he know that some of those horses would follow him to New York.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Todd Pletcher said "Take out Kona Gold and Caller One, and the sprint division is wide open."

Pletcher's comment pretty much sums up Saturday's $250,000 Forego Handicap, a Grade 1 race at Saratoga.

The 10-horse field is so evenly matched that only four pounds separate highweights Alannan and Say Florida Sandy from the low weights in one of the final major preps for the Breeders' Cup Sprint.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - A hodgepodge of eight 2-year-old fillies collide Saturday in the $75,000 Top Flight Stakes at Arlington. Among the favorites will be one filly who trains in Ohio and another who has made both of her starts at Emerald Downs in Washington.

But before dismissing the Top Flight as insignificant, think back just a year, when She's a Devil Due won this race, then won the Grade 2 Alcibiades Stakes and finished third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Halo of Hearts and Premeditation, who both won their last races in front-running fashion, could vie for both favoritism and the lead Saturday night in the $100,000 El Joven. The one-mile race for 2-year-olds shares the program with its filly counterpart, the $100,000 La Senorita, and together the stakes make for one of the richest nights of racing at Retama Park.