After Avie’s Tale scored a surprising off-the-turf win in the Jan. 1 Blushing K D Handicap – her first career dirt victory – trainer Josie Carroll said she’d noticed an immediate uptick in Avie’s Tale’s training after the mare arrived in New Orleans for the winter. Having conquered the Fair Grounds main track, Avie’s Tale will try for a turf stakes win in the $60,000 Marie Krantz Memorial Handicap on Saturday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Ed Barker, the trainer of Meese Rocks, breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t see the name Nicole H among the eight fillies and mares entered in Saturday’s $65,000 Correction Stakes at Aqueduct.

In a four-week span, Meese Rocks had run two of her best races only to finish second by 2 1/2 lengths to Nicole H in both the Garland of Roses and Interborough Stakes. Saturday, if Meese Rocks can run either of those two races back, she will be the horse to beat in the Correction, run at six furlongs over the inner track.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The Factor, who set a six-furlong track record on Dec. 26, is being pointed for the $150,000 San Vicente Stakes over seven furlongs on Feb. 20, trainer Bob Baffert said on Thursday.

Owned by George Bolton and Fog City Stable, The Factor ran six furlongs in 1:06.98 on the opening day of the winter-spring meeting, drawing off to win by 8 1/4 lengths.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Cost of Freedom is 8, but advanced age did not prevent him from winning three recent stakes and confirming his status as an elite California sprinter.

“He’s not a hard-used 8-year-old,” trainer John Sadler said. “It’s not like he’s had a hundred races; 21 races is not that many.”

On Saturday at Santa Anita, Cost of Freedom returns from a seven-week freshening as the favorite in the $200,000 Sunshine Millions Sprint. Eight entered the six-furlong sprint, including an improved Florida shipper that will provide Cost of Freedom his main threat.

Three horses who ran well on the same card at Laurel Park three weeks ago will clash with a lot more at stake in Saturday’s $75,000 Dancing Count, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds.

Familiar foes Afternoon Action and Wicked Thunder, separated by a nose in a second-level optional claimer in their most recent meeting, will face Diski Dance, who improved nearly 20 points on the Beyer Speed Figure scale while romping in a $40,000 claimer. All three horses last ran Jan. 8.

ARCADIA, Calif. – For many of the fillies and mares in Saturday’s $300,000 Sunshine Millions Distaff at Santa Anita, the race is the start of a 2011 campaign. For Evening Jewel, there is a chance it could be her last race.

Trainer Jim Cassidy said on Thursday that Evening Jewel needs a strong performance in the Distaff to continue racing this year. A bad loss could lead to conversations about retiring the 4-year-old Evening Jewel with owner Marilyn Braly.

“If she doesn’t run well, we’ll have to reevaluate,” Cassidy said. “I’d like to see her win one for Marilyn.”

Cool Bullet looked like a hot prospect in capturing the Hansel Stakes at Turfway Park last spring, but those hopes have been tempered in the interim. Now 4, Cool Bullet has won just once in six subsequent starts, including decisive defeats in his last four, all of which has led trainer Steve Margolis back to where they started.

“I sent him back there to try to get him back in the game,” Margolis said Thursday from his winter headquarters at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Rick Dutrow was looking forward to a huge weekend at Gulfstream Park with Amen Hallelujah the likely favorite in Saturday’s $200,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Sprint and Boys At Tosconova expected to be the public’s choice the following afternoon in the Grade 3 Holy Bull.

But with Boys At Tosconova now out of the Holy Bull, Dutrow will have to be satisfied with a big effort from Amen Hallelujah, who returns from almost an eight-month layoff in the six-furlong Sprint.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dynaslew held her own with some of the best of her division in 2010. She will begin her 2011 campaign in a much easier spot when she meets a field restricted to just Florida- and California-breds in Saturday’s $300,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf at Gulfstream Park.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Sunshine Millions, the brainchild of MI Developments chairman and founder Frank Stronach, began in 2003 as a series of eight races restricted to Florida- and California-breds in late January at the Stronach-owned tracks of Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita. One of the original concepts of Sunshine Millions was to foster a rivalry between the breeding industries within the two states.