ARCADIA, Calif. - "They usually need an out," don't they?

Trainer Bob Baffert was talking about first-time starters, and he is right. Usually, they need an out. Usually, they improve second time.

An Oak Tree pick six carryover of more than $74,470 is up for grabs Saturday at Santa Anita, and Baffert-trained Conveyance is one of six first-time starters buried in the middle of the races 4-9 sequence. Race 7 is a six-furlong sprint for 2-year-old maidens, and Conveyance is listed as the 7-2 second choice on the morning line.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - After Yes She's a Lady won the by 10 lengths at Belmont on May 13, trainer Todd Pletcher understandably had high hopes for her.

"We were thinking of, maybe off that, going to the Acorn," Pletcher said, referring to the Grade 1 race run on Belmont Stakes Day.

But Yes She's a Lady came down with a respiratory illness that took a long time to get over. Sunday, she returns to the races in the $65,000 Poker Night Stakes at Aqueduct, hoping to salvage her 3-year-old season. Yes She's a Lady takes on six opponents in the seven-furlong stakes race.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - People who like the babies - not the diaper-wearing kind, but the four-legged equine variety - are sure to love the racing at Churchill Downs Sunday, which includes an 11-race card consisting entirely of races for juveniles, capped by the Grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes for fillies and the Grade 3 Iroquois for males.

Throughout the day, talent and depth run aplenty - thanks to the support of horsemen, whom flooded the card with entries, with no trainers more active than D. Wayne Lukas and Steve Asmussen, who entered 10 horses apiece.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - It isn't hard to predict who will be taking home the trophies at the annual awards dinner that will be held at The Derby Bar and Grill on Dec. 12.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Steve Schwartz, an attorney with an extensive background in racing as a former trainer and an active owner and breeder, has accepted the position of president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California.

The appointment was announced Friday.

Schwartz, 59, had been in discussions with TOC officials about the position in recent months, following the departure of Drew Couto from the position in late June.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sterwins has won stakes on turf and Polytrack this season and is in a good position to add to his laurels in Sunday's $100,000 Labeeb.

The Labeeb, a one-mile overnight stakes, is scheduled to be the last turf stakes of the meeting, but with rain in the forecast, the race could be moved to the main track.

Either scenario could suit Sterwins, although a soft turf course would affect his status.

"The only thing we wouldn't want to run on is soft turf," said Malcolm Pierce, who trains Sterwins for Melnyk Racing Stable. "I would rather it came off."

Centaur, the gambling company that owns and operates Hoosier Park in Indiana, failed to make scheduled interest payments on its debt Oct. 27 and is in default, and two units of the company seeking to build a harness track and casino in Pennsylvania have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company said Thursday.

Centaur officials said the company is negotiating with its senior lenders in order to restructure its debt, and that Hoosier Park will continue to operate without interruption. Hoosier owed its senior lenders $13.4 million in debt payments.

California-based trainer Jeff Mullins will be prohibited from starting a horse at the New York Racing Association's Aqueduct racetrack for the next six months under a penalty imposed by the association for an incident in Aqueduct's race-day security barn in April, NYRA announced Friday.

Hawthorne Race Course has become the latest participant in 123 Racing, a Philadelphia Park-hubbed multi-race wager developed by an Australian company and offered to limited markets in the United States

Hawthorne began offering the 123 wager Wednesday, and the bet will be based at Hawthorne each Wednesday and Thursday this fall, while rotating to races at Philadelphia Park and Mountaineer Park on other days. Thoroughbred tracks offering the 123 include Hawthorne, Philadelphia, Canterbury, Presque Isle, and Mountaineer.

The Safety and Integrity Alliance of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association has given Santa Anita Park in Southern California full accreditation, the alliance announced on Thursday.

Santa Anita will host the Breeders' Cup next Friday and Saturday. Since the accreditation program was launched earlier this year, the alliance has placed a priority on reviewing tracks that are expected to be in the public eye. All three tracks that hosted Triple Crown races, for example, were reviewed for accreditation in advance of the races being held.