LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Captain Steve is not widely regarded as one of the top racehorses of all time. But if he wins the $750,000 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs Saturday, he will leapfrog from sixth to third place on the career earnings list and trail only Cigar and Skip Away.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - One career is just getting started, another is starting to wind down. In fact, Above Perfection and Jazznwithwindy share little in common except being female. When they compete in separate races Friday at Hollywood Park however, they may have to share in the applause.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Jet Drive, who locked horns with older rivals in his last outing, should be a major player against 3-year-olds in Friday's fourth race at Woodbine, a $62,500 optional claimer.

Jet Drive was a very precocious 2-year-old for trainer Wray Lawrence. After finishing second to Legal Heir in his debut, he graduated by 6 1/4 lengths in a five-furlong maiden special June 25.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - It's not like it was a good thing that Sonofabishop missed a year of racing. But because he did, Sonofabishop enters his 4-year-old summer a fresher, more lightly raced horse, and he may be better because of that.

Sonofabishop makes the second start of his comeback and faces eight rivals in Friday's featured race at Arlington, a third-level allowance at nine furlongs on turf.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Disappointed with the productivity he has gotten thus far from Princess Ellen, trainer Tom Skiffington has tried a new tactic with the filly in the morning.

"I'm training her hard," Skiffington said. "I tried training her easy. That didn't work, so I went to plan B. I remember something Woody [Stephens] said, 'Sometimes you got to put running on their mind.' "

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Miss Frankie, second to a stakes filly in a $12,500 starter allowance race May 16, rates as the one to beat when she runs for a $20,000 claiming price in the feature at Bay Meadows Friday night.

Despite a reported horse shortage and simultaneous racing at the San Joaquin County Fair at Stockton, the Friday night program at Bay Meadows came up strong on total entries, if a bit weak on quality. Fifty-nine horses entered the eight-race program, compared with only 48 horses the previous Friday, when Stockton wasn't running.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Maybe if the Louisville Breeders' Cup had been a couple of jumps longer, Royal Fair would have won, and not Saudi Poetry. But the race, on Derby Eve, was run at exactly 1 1/16 miles, with Saudi Poetry, a 14-1 shot, desperately holding on to beat the late-running Royal Fair, a 19-1 shot, by a head.

So when the top six finishers in the Louisville BC field return Saturday in the $300,000 Fleur de Lis Handicap, a 1 1/8-mile race that is the richest supporting event on the Stephen Foster undercard, won't Royal Fair be a major contender?

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mark Casse said on Wednesday that he is planning to run Exciting Story, winner of the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, either on the grass or in the July 1 Dominion Day Handicap over Woodbine's main track for his next start.

Owned by Mockingbird Farm, Exciting Story captured the May 28 Met Mile at Belmont as a 56-1 shot with Patrick Husbands aboard.

The New England Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association and Rockingham Park were unable to reach an agreement on a new purse contract during negotiations on Wednesday, threatening the track's ability to send its signal out of state.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jockey Felipe Martinez on Wednesday was given a seven-day suspension by Hollywood Park track stewards for causing a spill in the second race on Sunday.

Martinez rode Bully's Del Mar, who crossed into the path of Gold Scammer in the final sixteenth. Gold Scammer checked but was unable to avoid clipping heels with Bully's Del Mar and fell.

Neither Gold Scammer or his jockey, David Flores, were injured in the spill. While Flores was walking back to the jockey's room, Martinez walked out to apologize to Flores.