ELMONT, N.Y. - There was tremendous anticipation for the Grade 1 Hopeful when the undefeated, multiple stakes winner Chapel Royal took on the impressive debut winner Birdstone in the marquee 2-year-old event at Saratoga.

There was a tremendous letdown when Chapel Royal struggled home a well-beaten second behind Silver Wagon while Birdstone finished a less-impressive fourth. Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne at Belmont Park offers Chapel Royal and Birdstone a chance for redemption as the colts head an eight-horse field that will be going 1 1/16 miles around one turn.

ELMONT, N.Y. - It is testament to the brilliance of Halfbridled that trainer Bob Baffert decided to ship Victory U. S. A. cross-country for Saturday's $500,000 Frizette at Belmont Park. Victory U.S.A.'s presence in the Grade 1 race for 2-year-old fillies could add credence to - or perhaps dispel - the notion that the West Coast juvenile fillies are superior to those on the East.

Voters in Orleans Parish, La., on Saturday will help determine the future of a proposed slot machine parlor at Fair Grounds. The parish referendum is the second in three formal steps the track must take to bring slots. The first hurdle, legislative approval, was cleared last spring, and if the voters give approval Saturday, Fair Grounds faces a licensing suitability investigation by the Louisiana State Police.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Elliott Walden likes to tell a story about some sage advice he received early in his training career.

"People were constantly asking me before races if I liked my horse, and it got to be overwhelming after a while," said Walden. "Then another trainer told me to always say, 'I love him, just love him.' After four or five straight losers, they don't come around anymore."

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Last winter during a sports radio talk show, a fan asked University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino if any of his racehorses might compete in the Kentucky Derby. Pitino replied no. He said one horse, Della Francesca, could turn into a special horse on grass, and quipped that another, the struggling C.C. Minister, might soon be pulling a carriage in New York's Central Park.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Trainer Allen Iwinski could be primed for a spectacular Saturday.

He will run Dashboard Drummer, winner of the Sapling Stakes at Monmouth Park, in the Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes at Belmont that afternoon.

Then it's over to The Meadowlands to saddle the entry of Cupid Season and Stacy's Squaw in the $45,000 Just Smashing Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going six furlongs.

Both fillies come into the race on three-race win streaks.

The revolving door that has been the filly and mare turf division this season at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La., will take another spin Saturday when 118-pound highweight I'm the Business joins 10 others looking for their first stakes win at the meet in the $40,000 Old South Handicap.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Saturday's $100,000 California Sprint Championship, a six-furlong race for Cal-breds, often serves as a prep for the Cal Cup at Santa Anita. This year's race has attracted a varied group of seven, ranging from Chataquos' Choice, a moon-shooting 3-year-old who just won his maiden in a claiming event, to 10-year-old millionaire Men's Exclusive.

If Island Fashion runs in Saturday's Cotillion Handicap at Philadelphia Park, handicappers can look solely for a filly to use underneath her in the exacta.

With Island Fashion out of the equation, however, the Grade 2, $250,000 Cotillion for 3-year-old fillies would become much more difficult to analyze.

Trainer Barclay Tagg and owner Jeffrey Nielson appear to be leaning toward running Island Fashion, easy winner of the Grade 2 Delaware Oaks and Grade 1 Alabama during the summer, against older horses in Saturday's $750,000 Beldame at Belmont Park.

ANDERSON, Ind. - Will the winner of this year's Grade 3, $400,000 Indiana Derby follow in the hoofprints of the race's previous winners?

Orientate won the 2001 Indiana Derby and went on the next season to earn the Eclipse Award as the nation's top sprinter. Last year's Indiana Derby winner was Perfect Drift, who has established himself as one of the leading handicap horses in the country.

The year's Indiana Derby has lured a pair of promising runners, Wando and Grand Hombre, who seem to stand above the other nine entrants in the 1 1/16-mile race.