INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The conversation between owner Samantha Siegel and trainer Ron Ellis was quick and to the point.

Rail Trip, a four-time stakes winner with Ellis in 2009 and 2010, had lost his rider at the start of a minor stakes at Aqueduct last November when Siegel decided she had seen enough. A winless five-race campaign for Rail Trip in New York was about to end. The gelding was on his way back to California and Ellis.

“I told him, ‘How would you like to have Rail Trip?’ ” Siegel recalls. “I kind of knew the answer.”

OCEANPORT, N.J. – A refreshed Unbridled Humor heads back to work in the Grade 3, $100,000 Violet Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf, the Memorial Day feature at Monmouth Park.

The 10-race card gets underway at 12:50 p.m. Eastern and concludes the holiday racing weekend on the Jersey Shore. Starting June 1, Monmouth expands to a three-day schedule of Friday through Sunday.

The Violet, a longtime fixture at the Meadowlands Racetrack, attracted a field of eight for the 1 1/16-mile race.

As the weekend unfolded, the field remained in flux.

Plus One ran only 12 days ago, but trainer Tim Hamm said he just couldn’t pass up Tuesday evening’s entry-level allowance for 3-year-old fillies at Presque Isle Downs.

“She faced older, multiple winners in her last and ran a big race,” Hamm said. “It was just a great effort and shae came back and is doing really good, so we had to run her in this spot.”

Plus One set blazing fractions of of 21.60 and 44.60 secondsin that five-furlong allowance here on May 17 but was caught in deep stretch and beaten a neck.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – From a numerical standpoint, no horse has run a better dirt race this year than Nates Mineshaft. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 113 for his tour-de-force New Orleans Handicap, and if he runs back to that North American-high Monday in the Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap, the 1 1/16-mile racewill be a race for second. But if Nates Mineshaft fails to recapture his form of two starts ago, fellow graded winners Marilyn’s Guy and Apart look poised to add to their credentials in what is the richest race of the meet at Lone Star Park.

There’s a familiar storyline heading into Monday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Berkeley Handicap at Golden Gate Fields: A highly accomplished veteran millionaire heads the field and will be the target of several very sharp opponents.

But instead of the favorite being Bold Chieftain, who lost the race by a head in each of the past three years, it will be Awesome Gem.

Among his main opponents in the 1 1/16-mile Tapeta race are Hudson Landing, Gallant Son, Positive Response and Anthony’s Cross.

Gibson Crystal is the likely favorite, but will have her work cut out for her as a solid field of older fillies and mares goes six furlongs in the $15,000 Bluegrass Stakes at Lincoln Race Course on Monday.

Atthispointintime is an improving 3-year-old filly whose future racing path could be determined in Monday’s second race at Louisiana Downs. She will be making both her two-turn and turf debut in the first-level allowance, which will be run at about a mile. It is for fillies and mares, and the field of six is led by Kidding, who has finished second at this level in her last two starts, which came at Fair Grounds and Louisiana Downs.

Pay the Man, a top Ohio-bred female throughout her career, heads a field of 12 Ohio-bred fillies and mares in Monday’s 20th running of the $50,000 Angenora Stakes.

Defending champion Humble Smarty leads a field of 10 for the five-furlong Honor the Hero Turf Express on Memorial Day at Canterbury Park.

Humble Smarty, who set the track record of 56.10 seconds in last year’s off-the-turf Honor the Hero, is looking to score first of the bench after a five-month break. Humble Smarty has fired two bullet works at Prairie Meadows leading up to the race, and Prairie’s leading jockey Alex Birzer makes the trip north from Iowa to take the reins.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Awesome Maria puts her six-race winning streak on the line against arguably the toughest field she’s met to date in Monday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Ogden Phipps Handicap at Belmont Park.

Usually the feature of a Saturday card in June, this year’s Phipps was moved to the same day as the Grade 1, $750,000 Metropolitan Handicap and Grade 1, $300,000 Acorn on a stellar 11-race program.