Monmouth Park

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to top the epic 2010 Breeders' Cup story line with Zenyatta going for her 20th straight win and consecutive Classic wins in her final race. But BC 28, with its $26 million in purses spread over 15 races set for Friday and Saturday at Churchill Downs, has another brilliant filly in the Classic. If Havre de Grace, who was based at Delaware Park all summer, wins, she will be the third consecutive female Horse of the Year after Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta. This Cup also has the amazing French-trained mare Goldikova going for an unprecedented fourth consecutive Turf Mile.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Bob Baffert is back on the East Coast, convinced his 3-year-old colt Coil can beat the Preakness and Belmont Stakes winners again in the $1 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday. Last time the California-based trainer brought Coil cross country, the striking chestnut won the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park by a neck over Preakness winner Shackleford. Coil, who will be ridden by Martin Garcia, is the 3-1 second choice, with Stay Thirsty the slight 5-2 favorite in a 10-horse field.

CARL HANFORD trained five-time Horse of the Year Kelso (1960-64). Horse and trainer often spent their summers at Delaware Park. Carl's wife, Millie, was the track's paddock attendant for nearly 30 years. Their daughter, Gail, is a DelPark trainer. Carl, 95, died Sunday morning at his Delaware home. Millie passed away in 2005. So what happens in yesterday's first race at Delaware? M's Angel, trained by Gail and making her third lifetime start, won by 5 3/4 lengths. Horse racing is very much a sport about karma.

After a brief vacation at a Kentucky farm, Preakness winner Shackleford is ready to run in the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. Shackleford is the 5-2 morning-line favorite for Sunday's 11/8-mile race. Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom is injured, but Belmont Stakes winner Ruler On Ice is among Shackleford's challengers. Also entered are Coil, the second betting choice at 3-1; Joe Vann; Pants On Fire; Concealed Identity; JJ's Lucky Train; and Astrology.

Preakness winner Shackleford and Belmont champion Ruler On Ice will meet again in Sunday's $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park. Shackleford is the morning-line favorite at 5-2 and drew Post 5 in the field of eight 3-year-olds. Ruler On Ice is the second choice at 4-1 and has Post 6. The Haskell has a scheduled post time of 5:43 p.m. and will be televised live on 6ABC. The winner will receive an automatic bid to the Breeders' Cup Classic. Purse: $1 million. Distance: 11/8 miles.

Philadelphia native and former WNBA star Dawn Staley is among the six inductees to the 2012 class of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. The inductees announced Saturday also include Robin Roberts , a Good Morning America host; two-time Olympic gold medalist Nikki McCray ; former Old Dominion star Inge Nissen ; five-time Division III national championship coach Nancy Fahey ; and former South Carolina star Pam McGee ....

A Breeders' Cup berth will be on the line Saturday at Parx Racing when some of the nation's best long distance runners square off in the $200,000 Greenwood Cup. Contested on the main track at a mile and a half, the Greenwood Cup winner will receive an automatic bid into the Breeders Cup Marathon, the race that kicks off Breeders Cup weekend Friday, November 4th at Churchill Downs. The Greenwood Cup is one of two Breeders Cup "Win and You're In" races on the Parx stakes calendar, the other being the G3 Turf Monster Handicap run here on Labor Day Monday, September 5th. Heading the field Saturday is Preston Stable's Birdrun.

Former Villanova basketball star Corey Stokes was in the Hudson County Jail in New Jersey on Saturday afternoon, charged with assault after an incident at a bar in Hoboken left a man with a broken jaw. Stokes appeared in the Central Judicial Processing court in Jersey City on Saturday afternoon. Also charged with assault were Keith M. McGrath, 22, and Derrel L. Williams, 23. All three defendants are from Bayonne, N.J. According to court documents, the incident occurred early Saturday morning at One Hudson Place in Hoboken, where the defendants "did punch and kick [one victim]

SAY WHAT YOU will about us, but our stadium police and security folks only zap teenagers who run onto the field wanting to play Taser tag. In Russia, they've taken an opposite approach. Zenit St. Petersburg is accusing riot police of zapping one of its players during a Russian league match on Saturday. Striker Danko Lazovic was trying to throw his shirt to his team's fans in the stands when he was approached by police officers and, a few thousand volts later, had a burn mark under his right shoulder blade.

Jerry Hollendorfer has been among the nation's leading trainers for nearly a quarter-century, and he's closing in on 6,000 career victories. His biggest win might have come yesterday, though, when the 64-year-old dean of racing in Northern California was elected to the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame. Champion fillies Open Mind, Safely Kept and Sky Beauty also were elected in the contemporary category by a 183-member voting panel. The hall's Historic Review Committee will announce its selections next month, and the class of 2011 will be inducted Aug. 2. Among the finalists not voted in were three-time Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Calvin Borel, last week's Derby winning rider John Velazquez and Garrett Gomez.