AUBURN, Wash. - The first leg of the Marathon Championship Series will go as the featured eighth race on Friday's nine-race card at Emerald Downs.

The popular three-race series will be run under $10,000 starter allowance conditions, and Friday's initial leg will be contested by nine distance specialists at 1 1/8 miles. Subsequent legs will go at 1 1/4 miles on Aug. 3 and at 1 1/2 miles on Aug. 17. Points will be accumulated through the course of the series, and the owner of the top point-earner will receive a handsome trophy.

EDMONTON, Alberta - The $30,000 Northlands Oaks for 3-year-old fillies takes place Friday, and trainer Rod Heggie is hoping that Brighton Belle will pick up where she left off after winning the Chariot Chaser here June 30.

Brighton Belle, an Alberta-bred, took the lead out of the gate and made the rest of the field play catch-up in the 6 1/2-furlong Chariot Chaser. Heggie said jockey Chris McGregor plans to employ the same strategy in Friday's one-mile Northland Oaks, in which Brighton Belle will begin from post 6.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Sigfreto, the longest shot in the field, and Dr. Park, the favorite, won divisions of the Oceanside Stakes on Wednesday, the opening day of the Del Mar meeting.

The turf stakes were the highlight of a program that drew an ontrack crowd of 33,526, the third-highest attendance in track history, surpassed by the 1996 Pacific Classic and the opening day in 1994. The overall handle of $12,424,184 was an increase of 8.4 percent over 2000.

"I think it gives it a positive flavor for the rest of the meeting," said track president Joe Harper.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Forty-one-year-old Ronny Werner's gray T-shirt was soaked through with sweat, front and back. By 8 a.m., the Chicago summer sun was high in the sky, and the humidity was rising quickly. Felt almost like home: Granbury, Texas.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Storm Dream, a graded stakes winner in 2000, makes her 4-year-old debut Friday in a second-level allowance race, which highlights the final twilight racing program of the season at Belmont Park. First post for the nine-race card is 3:05 p.m.

As a 3-year-old, when she was trained by Phil Johnson, Storm Dream won the Grade 3 Boiling Springs Handicap at the Meadowlands. She faltered thereafter, finishing last in the Noble Damsel Handicap and third in a six-furlong allowance race on dirt last Nov. 3.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Wait around as long as you like during Friday's 10-race Arlington card. You will not see an open allowance race. A pair of allowance heats for Illinois-breds, carded as the seventh and the eighth, are the classiest fare on the program.

But if there is a lack of real quality here, both races seem eminently bettable, with large fields absent standout runners.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Alea Iacta Est, a bang-up third in his most recent outing, in the Grade 2 Nearctic Handicap, should be well backed to end a winless drought in Friday's Woodbine feature.

A field of seven was drawn for the $100,000 optional claimer, which will be run at six furlongs on the grass for a purse of $60,000.

DEL MAR, Calif. - It already has been a long, winding road for Fancy Prancer, a gangly 2-year-old filly who ships in to Del Mar for Friday's $125,000 California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes. A field of nine Cal-bred fillies entered the 5 1/2-furlong stakes, none with the brilliance of Fancy Prancer.

FORT ERIE, Ontario - Dancethruthedawn, winner of the Queen's Plate at Woodbine on June 24, will attempt to get a second leg up on the Canadian Triple Crown when she faces five rivals at Fort Erie in Sunday's Prince of Wales.

The field for the Prince of Wales, a 1 3/16-mile race which will be worth $350,000, was announced Wednesday.

Dancethruthedawn, owned by Sam-Son Farm and trained by Mark Frostad, again will have Gary Boulanger in the irons and is Daily Racing Form's 9-5 morning-line favorite. She will begin from post 4.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Monmouth Park will raise the purse of the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational $500,000 - from $1 million to $1.5 million - if Point Given starts, said Robert Kulina, Monmouth general manager, on Wednesday.

Kulina said the track would raise the purse $500,000 if a winner of one of the Triple Crown races runs. With Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos sidelined by injury, Point Given, who won the Preakness and Belmont, is the only 3-year-old who meets the conditions of the purse raise.