ELMONT, N.Y. - Juan Serey and Richard Dutrow Jr., who dead-heated for the training title at Aqueduct, are engaged in an early-season duel for the top spot at Belmont. Both have entered a pair in a $52,000 money allowance that serves as Friday's featured event. First post for Friday's twilight card is 3:05 p.m.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Chris McCarron, the Hall of Fame jockey who recently joined the select 7,000-win club, has been named to ride Balto Star in the $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 9, trainer Todd Pletcher said Wednesday.

McCarron replaces Mark Guidry, who rode Balto Star to front-running victories in the Spiral Stakes and Arkansas Derby. Guidry then rode Balto Star to a 14th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. Guidry is currently serving a 30-day suspension, and although it expires before the Belmont, Pletcher opted to make a change.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Steve Owens wanted to keep his two Queen's Plate hopefuls on separate paths leading up to the big race June 24 at Woodbine.

But now Highland Legacy and Legal Heir, both owned by the Empress Stable of the trainer's wife, Beverly, and mother-in-law, Mildred Lewis, are slated to run as an entry in the 1 1/8-mile Plate Trial here next Saturday, June 2.

"I'd been considering the Steady Growth for Highland Legacy," said Owens, with reference to Wednesday's 1 1/16-mile stakes for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds and upward.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Monday's $27,500 Victoria Day for older fillies and mares began the stakes schedule at Assiniboia Downs, and Ispymytie continued her dominance here by taking the 5 1/2-furlong event by 1 1/4 lengths over Miss Sandy Dee.

Owned by Red Ron Farms, trained by Tom Dodds, and ridden to victory by Alan Cuthbertson, Ispymytie now is 6 for 7 at Assiniboia Downs and has amassed $95,570 of her $125,218 lifetime earnings here. Ispymytie, clocked in 1:07.20, returned $12.40 and topped a $37.10 exactor.

MUSKEGON, MICH - Secret Romeo, the top 2-year-old colt at Great Lakes Downs last season, heads a field of 10 3-year-old colts and geldings in the $45,000 Lansing Stakes here on Friday's card, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Central.

Secret Romeo is owned by the AAC Stable of A.A. Catenacci and trained by Gerald Bennett. A son of Service Stripe, Secret Romeo won the Michigan Futurity and the Patrick Wood Stakes at last year's meeting, when trained by his breeder, James Jackson.

MIAMI - Racing on the south Florida circuit shifts back to a familiar and comfortable site on Thursday: Calder Race course, which will operate for the next seven and a half months through the end of the Tropical at Calder session on Jan. 2, 2002.

This is the 31st season for Calder and the third under Churchill Downs Inc., which purchased the track from Kawasaki Leasings in January 1999.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - With Morluc and Testify ineligible, a wide-open field of turf-sprint specialists should make for an entertaining feature race in the Louisville twilight at Churchill Downs Thursday.

Fifteen horses are named in the ninth of 10 Thursday races, a $58,500 allowance at five furlongs on the turf; only 10 will be allowed to start. The main body of the race is sufficiently deep that the favorite figures to be lukewarm at his lowest.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The first step in handicapping a race is to eliminate from consideration those horses with no chance. In the seventh-race feature on Thursday at Hollywood Park, handicappers may proceed directly to step two.

Eight fillies and mares race 1 1/16 miles in the two-other-than allowance, and not one of them can be safely excluded. Bettors able to successfully weed through the confusion will be paid well.

AUBURN, Wash. - A Jazzy Venture is the one to catch in Thursday's Emerald Downs feature, a 6 1/2-furlong race for $20,000 claiming mares that has drawn a field of six.

A Jazzy Venture, a 5-year-old daughter of Jazzing Around who is trained by Bill Thompson, won the Pierce County Stakes at 2 and the U.S. Bank Stakes at 3 for owners Al Adams and David Israel, but she has twice been claimed away. Each time Adams and Israel have claimed her back, most recently joining a third partner, Jack Garrison, and claiming her for a $16,000 tag on April 22.

ELMONT, N.Y. - A stakes-packed holiday weekend is on the horizon, but until then an ordinary weekday card awaits Belmont Park racing fans Thursday.

A $54,000 allowance serves as the feature and drew a field of seven older males. The classified event, the eighth on the card, will be run at 1 1/8 miles around one turn on the main track.