In a span of about four months, Pack Your Bags has gone from beaten $20,000 claimer to $50,000 stakes winner. On Saturday, he will be looking to continue his upward trend in the $50,000 KLAQ Handicap at Sunland Park.

The 5 1/2-furlong race is the first Thoroughbred stakes of the 77-date meet that opened Tuesday. The field includes defending KLAQ champ Ducky Drake, the 9-year-old gelding who earlier this year won the $125,000 Iowa Sprint Handicap, and Cowboy’s Prayer, who is riding a two-race win streak for Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Chip Woolley.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – When trainer Jim Hooper led his 5-year-old gelding Inherit the Gold onto Aqueduct’s main track for the Thunder Rumble division of the New York Stallion Stakes on Nov. 13, he noticed that the horse’s ears perked up.

“I think he likes that place pretty well,” said Hooper, whose horse rallied from off the pace that day to win by a neck, his seventh career victory at Aqueduct.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Briecat will be pointed to a range of stakes in 2012 after winning for the first time in 2011 in Wednesday’s $66,640 Cool Air Stakes at Hollywood Park.

Trainer Vladimir Cerin said he plans to start Briecat in races from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles early next year, with the minor Paseana Stakes for fillies and mares in early January as a possible next start.

There are question marks surrounding every 2-year-old in Saturday night’s $300,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park in Oklahoma City. For some like Seeker, who exits the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint, and Ted’s Folly, who is seeking his sixth straight win, the race will be their first at two turns. For others, such as Grade 1 Champagne alum No Spin, the Springboard is a chance to prove themselves on dirt. And for runners like Fire Alarm, who in his last start faced future Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club winner Gemologist, the race is a first shot at stakes competition.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Corey Nakatani was all set to spend the winter in New York, until he got an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Thus, after he rides at Aqueduct on Friday and then makes a one-day stopover at Remington Park on Friday, Nakatani will return to Southern California where he will ride first-call for trainer Steve Asmussen during the Santa Anita meet which begins Dec. 26. Nakatani will actually begin riding at Hollywood Park on Wednesday and is scheduled to ride Handsome Mike for Doug O’Neill in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity on Dec. 17.

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – Jess You and I has become an annual fixture in the Champion of Champions, the year-end Quarter Horse stakes at Los Alamitos that brings together many of the nation’s leading older horses.

Jess You and I won the 2008 Champion of Champions as a 4-year-old, but was eighth in 2009 and fourth last year. For his fourth consecutive appearance in Saturday’s $750,000 Champion of Champions, Jess You and I could make history, as the first 7-year-old winner.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – It has proven nearly impossible to sweep California’s three Grade 1 stakes for 2-year-old fillies. Only Excellent Meeting in 1998 has won the Del Mar Debutante, Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita, and Hollywood Starlet Stakes at Hollywood Park.

Some fillies are brilliant at the end of Del Mar in sprints, but unable to finish the season in the winner’s circle of a route at Hollywood Park in December. Some develop too late to be effective in sprints.

Rapid Redux, who set a record for horse based in the continental United States with his 20th consecutive victory last month at Mountaineer Racetrack, will take aim at another record Tuesday at Laurel Park.

A little more than two months ago, Love’s Blush beat Baltimore Belle by 3 1/2 lengths in the Maryland Million Ladies, a 1 1/8-mile race contested on turf. Their rematch in Saturday’s $75,000 Geisha for Maryland-bred fillies and mares at Laurel Park will come at a one-turn mile on the main track, which makes it plausible that Baltimore Belle can turn the tables.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – One of the more notable sightings on the racetrack here Thursday morning was that of the old warhorse Presious Passion, who is attempting a comeback with trainer Mary Hartmann.