LEXINGTON, Ky. - Ravel has been gone but not forgotten, at least not by Michael McCarthy.

"I had no doubt last winter that the best two 2-year-olds on the West Coast were just a couple of stalls away from each other," said McCarthy, who ran the Todd Pletcher stable last winter at Santa Anita. "And that was Ravel and Rags to Riches."

Trainers Carl Nafzger, Steve Asmussen, and Todd Pletcher, each of whom accounted for a leg of this year's Triple Crown, will be recognized with a special proclamation from Texas Gov. Rick Perry during ceremonies surrounding the Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductions Saturday at Retama Park near San Antonio.

MIAMI - Calico Bay and Bond Princess have already faced - and been defeated three times apiece by - Silk Ridge earlier this season. So why do trainers Bill Kaplan and Tim Ritvo think things might be any different when the trio square off again in Saturday's $400,000 My Dear Girl Stakes?

STICKNEY, Ill. - If you enjoyed the Sept. 1 Kent Breeders' Cup at Delaware Park, you may well like the Hawthorne Derby here on Saturday.

Four of the nine horses that raced in the Kent also were entered Wednesday in the Hawthorne Derby, the final graded stakes of the year in Chicago. The Hawthorne Derby is a Grade 3 with a $250,000 purse contested at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - Eight promising 2-year-old fillies go seven furlongs Friday in a $26,000 entry-level allowance.

Two of them exit stakes and no doubt will find the company they on Friday friendlier than what they faced in their last starts.

ELMONT, N.Y. - At least Todd Pletcher now knows why Ready's Image ran so poorly in last Saturday's Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park.

Ready's Image came out of his last-place finish in the Champagne with a chip in the upper joint of his left knee and was vanned to Ocala, Fla., this week where he will undergo surgery to have the chip removed. Ready's Image obviously will not race again this year, but the prognosis is good for a full recovery and a return to the races at 3.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Ten a Penny did not have the sort of September that trainer Craig Dollase had planned.

First, the colt was denied a berth to the $400,000 Del Mar Derby Sept. 3 when he did not have enough earnings to draw into the field. As a consolation, Ten a Penny started in the $75,000 Bay Meadows Derby on Sept.o29, but was beaten a head by Unusual Suspect.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Nine 3-year-old fillies have been entered for the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, the Grade 1 turf race that will be run for the 24th time Saturday at Keeneland.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Martin Drexler didn't make much of an impact when he shipped in to Woodbine following the conclusion of the Assiniboia Downs meeting last fall, going 0 for 14. But the 37-year-old Drexler is returning, and he is hot on the heels of a career-best Assiniboia meeting.

Drexler, whose primary client is the Shyman Stable of Stuart Hyman, topped the standings there in races won with 43 and in money won with $541,091 from 129 starters. His five stakes winners included Weather Warning in the $100,000 Manitoba Derby.

ALBANY, Calif. - Although three-quarters of an inch of rain fell here Tuesday night, the new Tapeta surface at Golden Gate Fields was dry Wednesday morning as horses went about their work.

Trainer Bill Delia said the track looked about the same Wednesday morning as it did Tuesday, before the rain.

"I've talked to some of the riders that have worked horses, and they said track is very good," Delia said. "I'm very happy with it."

Trainer Gil Matos noted that his horses came back from their exercise clean, not splattered with mud.