EDMONTON, Alberta - Trainer Rick Hedge has shown the Midas touch in the waning weeks of the Alberta season, which is a good omen for the speedball King Jeremy in an optional claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs on Saturday.

King Jeremy was recently claimed by Hedge for owner Richard Davies for $28,000 and is making his second start for Hedge, a former Alberta champion rider.

Hedge won the Beaufort with Beau Brass on Alberta Fall Classics Day Sept. 20 and last weekend won the Freedom of the City with Waikoloa.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Lilsisterlightning, who has been one of the top sprinting mares at Hastings for the last two years, will likely be favored over in a $50,000 optional race for fillies and mares going 6 1/2 furlongs Saturday.

Lilsisterlightning, is coming off of an eighth-place finish in the Delta Collen Stakes Sept. 21, but that was going around three turns and both times she's tried to carry her speed farther than 6 1/2 furlongs she's finished out of the money.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland Meadows will launch its 80-day 2003-2004 meeting on Saturday with a nine-race program that drew 89 entries, including a full field of 12 older sprinters in the featured Inaugural Handicap at six furlongs.

The $10,000 Inaugural will see the return to Oregon of Lethal Grande, who will carry high weight of 123 pounds. Lethal Grande, a 4-year-old son of Corslew who races for owner Mike Pollowitz, has won 6 of 28 races and nearly $120,000, racing mainly in California.

CHICAGO - The big three in Saturday's Hawthorne Derby dwindled to two when Remind was taken out of the race, sick at his Kentucky base. Lismore Knight and Foufa's Warrior, the two highest-rated 3-year-old turf horses in the derby, no longer have Remind to conquer, but the up-and-comers Sir Walter Rahy and False Promises may turn up the heat.

Add several other fringe contenders, and the Grade 3, $250,000 Hawthorne Derby, run at 1 1/8 miles on turf, looks like an excellent betting race.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The Empire Classic at Belmont Park on Saturday lost some of its allure when Funny Cide defected to the Breeders' Cup Classic. But the race should still hold appeal for fans.

ARCADIA, Calif. - A nose away from a perfect record after three starts, Razen Hazen will attempt to win his second stakes in Saturday's $75,000 Sunny Slope Stakes at Santa Anita.

Trained in Northern California by owner Dennis Ward, Razen Hazen brings a strong record to the Sunny Slope Stakes, run over six furlongs for 2-year-olds.

Razen Hazen won the Cavonnier Juvenile over 5 1/2 furlongs at Santa Rosa in early August and was a game second to Hajji's Honor in the San Mateo Stakes on Sept. 28, losing by a nose over six furlongs.

Since 1976, when Jerry Nielsen and his wife, Joanne, bought their first broodmare, the couple have bred many New York-bred stakes winners, including Capades, who was the 1990 New York-bred Horse of the Year, Roman Dancer, I'm All Yours, Along Came Mary, and Quantum Merit.

The Nielsens, who have been married 43 years, own and manage the 200-acre Sunnyfield Farm, a commercial breeding operation in Westchester County, where they keep their 12 broodmares.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Brian Boru, who will looking to give owner Susan Magnier and trainer Aidan O'Brien their second straight win in the Grade 1 Canadian International, drew post 4 here Thursday when a field of 11 was entered for Sunday's $1.5 million feature.

The Canadian International, a 1 1/2-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and upward, will go as the ninth of 11 races on a Woodbine program that also features the Grade 1, $750,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes, a 1 1/4-mile turf race for fillies and mares.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The day after Dancewithavixen finished second by a neck to Raylene in the British Columbia Breeders' Cup Oaks, Dancewithavixen's trainer and owner, Tom Longstaff, was itching for a rematch.

It's not that Longstaff was slighting the race that Raylene had run in the Oaks. "That's a very nice filly that beat her," Longstaff said at the time.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland Meadows will experiment with a new schedule at its 80-day 2003-04 meeting, swapping the traditional Sunday racing for Mondays and moving the first post time back from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays. Only Friday night racing's 7 p.m. first post will remain the same.

The changes reflect an increased emphasis on exporting the signal from Portland Meadows, which is entering its third season under the auspices of Magna Entertainment Corp.