Casino Drive leads the way down the stretch at Belmont Park under the rein of Kent Desormeaux, the jockey who rode Big Brown to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

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NEW YORK — Unbeaten Casino Drive is on his way to the Belmont Stakes.

Making only his second start, Casino Drive romped to a 5 3/4-length victory Saturday in the $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes for 3-year-olds at Belmont Park.

The Peter Pan is the longtime prep for the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown, on June 7. Casino Drive, whose previous start was an 11 1/2-length win in Japan in February, made the long journey worthwhile for trainer Kazuo Fujisawa and owner Hidetoshi Yamamoto.

Casino Drive was clocked in 1:47.87 for the 1 1/8 miles on the fast track.

A $950,000 yearling purchase in 2006, Casino Drive is closely related to the last two Belmont winners: Jazil (2006) and the filly Rags to Riches (2007).

Kent Desormeaux, who won the Kentucky Derby last week with Big Brown, was aboard for Casino Drive's U.S. debut.

ROME — One after the other, Andy Roddick and Radek Stepanek quit shortly after their semifinal matches began Saturday in the Rome Masters.

Roddick pulled out with a back problem after falling behind 3-0 in the first set against Stanislas Wawrinka. Stepanek stopped while trailing Novak Djokovic 6-0, 1-0 after appearing affected by the heat.

Total elapsed time for the two matches: a wimpy 49 minutes.

"You don't want to have these kind of situations at big events," said Djokovic, who joined the chorus of players complaining that the schedule is too tough.

"The players are not getting injured for nothing, you know. There is a big reason why they're having these difficulties. I understand that because I was in that situation many times."

● Elena Dementieva beat second-ranked Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 7-5 on Saturday to reach the final of the upset-filled German Open in Berlin.

In Sunday's final, the ninth-ranked Dementieva will face fellow Russian and 17th-ranked Dinara Safina, who beat 18-year-old Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-4, 6-1.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — Eric Staal scored four goals to help Canada rout Germany 10-1 for its fifth straight victory at the hockey world championships on Saturday.

Canada will face Finland on Monday with the top seed in the single-elimination quarterfinals at stake.

Martin St. Louis had five assists, and Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley, Patrick Sharp, Derek Roy and Mike Green scored the rest of the goals.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A 24-hour TV channel run by the U.S. Olympic Committee will not debut before the Beijing Games in August.

"It's not on until I can tell you what channel it's on," said Norman Bellingham, chief operating officer of the Colorado Springs-based USOC. "The likelihood it would be launched before Beijing, it would be extraordinarily difficult for that to happen."

Plans call for the U.S. Olympic Network to feature news updates, archival footage and live coverage of events such as national championships, world championships and Olympic trials.

● Senior Alison Walshe tied for medalist honors, leading the Arizona Wildcats to fourth place Saturday at the 2008 NCAA Women's Golf West Regional in Lincoln, Calif.

Walshe closed with a 3-under 69 to come from behind and share medalist honors with Oklahoma State's Therese Koelback at 6-under 210.   

The Wildcats shot a 4-over 292 in the final round and finished the tournament at 16-over-par 880 to advance to the NCAA Women's Golf Championships, May 20-23, in Albuquerque.  

USC won the 21-team event by 15 strokes with a 9-under 855, followed by Arizona State (870) and UNLV (879).