ALBANY, Calif. - La Mina rallied strongly in the stretch to wear down pacesetting Christmas Ship and capture the $75,000 Corte Madera Stakes on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields.

Winner of the Hidden Lite on the turf at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meet two starts back, La Mina kept favored Sky Mystic pinned inside of her as they chased Christmas Ship, who took the lead under a snug hold in the one-mile race for 2-year-old fillies. La Mina won by 2 1/2 lengths over Christmas Ship in 1:38.07. La Mina, who is trained by Mike Mitchell and owned by the M & B Partnership LLC, paid $6.80.

MIAMI - It looks like Christmas will be coming early for Calder's racing secretary, Mike Anifantis, who appears to be getting just about every horse on his wish list for next Saturday's Grand Slam II program.

OLDSMAR, Fla. - Often a jockey needs a change of scenery to give a stalled career a boost and get himself on a roll.

Jose Velez Jr. is a case in point. A veteran with more than 3,000 wins, Velez has a resume that includes riding titles at Gulfstream and Calder, membership in the Calder Racing Hall of Fame, and mounts in the Breeders' Cup and Dubai World Cup. He was a perennial power at Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands over the past 14 years, but this summer his business slowed. He split with his agent, and as the winter approached, he pondered his next move.

VINTON, La. - Z Humor and Turf War took different routes to Friday night's Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot, but the results were the same as they dead-heated for the win in Louisiana's richest race. The $400,000 in graded earnings each picked up should ensure them a spot in the starting gate for next year's Kentucky Derby if they choose to run.

"It makes him eligible," said Bill Mott, who trains Z Humor. "He's won enough money. I guess that's part of the battle. It's not the whole thing, but at least if we want to run we're in."

The Fair Grounds stewards have ruled that Storm Heat, who was entered but excluded from Saturday's 11th race at Fair Grounds,the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Sprint, will now be allowed to run but will compete for purse money only. There will be no betting on Storm Heat, who will break from the outside post.

The change was not made in time for Saturday's editions of Daily Racing Form.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - For most trainers, the campaign enjoyed by Reade Baker would be a dream season.

And while Baker is not about to belittle his good fortune, he still cannot help looking back at what might have been.

"The year certainly had its ups and downs," said Baker, a Sovereign Award finalist who ranked fourth in races won with 46 and third in money won with $3 million heading into the final three cards of the Woodbine meeting.

Baker actually suffered his first setbacks before the meeting opened on March 31.

With a stable of nearly 50 horses, a trainer based primarily in Kentucky normally feels compelled to send his better ones to Florida, Louisiana, or Arkansas for the winter.

Mike Maker was inclined to send a string of horses to Fair Grounds, but when management at the New Orleans track initially allotted him what he considered to be an insufficient number of stalls, he decided to keep all 48 horses at the Trackside training center in Louisville, Ky., for the winter.

FDD Dynasty, the 2006 champion 2-year-old colt, is ready to make his final career start in the Grade 1, $1 million Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos.

"We worked him and he went 350 yards in 17.7 [seconds]," said trainer Mike Joiner. "We got everything we wanted out of the work. We're ready to go."

MIAMI - One of the better rivalries of the 2007 Calder season will be renewed one more time on Sunday when Fair Weather Stan and Fearless Eagle hook up once again in the $50,000 Mel's Hope Stakes, carded at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

Fearless Eagle got the best of Fair Weather Stan when he upset the Lord Juban Stakes on June 23. But Fair Weather Stan has avenged that setback in each of the pair's three subsequent meetings, coming out on top with victories in both the Needles and Donthelumbertrader stakes, and also by finishing third in the Grade 3 Calder Derby.

STICKNEY, Ill. - There will be no Hollywood Turf Cup for Cloudy's Knight, and no McKnight Handicap at Calder, either. Trainer Frank Kirby had said the last several weeks that he had entertained the notion of shipping his turf star from Chicago to one of those races, but Kirby always sounded more inclined to wait until next year, and in the end, that was the decision reached by Cloudy's Knight's connections.

"We're kind of letting him coast a little bit right now, giving him a little bit of a break," Kirby said on Friday afternoon.