From the stable area to the executive offices, Sam Houston Race Park has been infused with new blood for its 68-date Thoroughbred meet that opens Friday night.

Owner Jim McIngvale and trainers Dallas Keen and Bruce Jackson are among the fresh faces that have brought horses to town, while Andrea Young will be overseeing day-to-day operations for the track after being appointed its executive vice president and chief operating officer in March.

Ravalo, unbeaten in two starts over synthetic surfaces but a dud the last two times he raced on conventional dirt, rediscovered his speed to upset Tuesday night's $75,000 Sophomore Sprint Championship at Mountaineer Race Track.

Given a more aggressive ride by new jockey Dana Whitney, Ravalo ($15.60) outdueled 50-1 longshot Head Master D early to draw clear by a length at the quarter pole, then turned back 4-5 favorite Piratesonthelake in deep stretch to capture the six-furlong stakes for 3-year-olds by 2 3/4 lengths.

Retired jockey Julie Krone, the only female rider in the Hall of Fame, has joined fellow Hall of Fame jockeys Eddie Delahoussaye and Laffit Pincay Jr. as part of Santa Anita's speaker's bureau, the track has announced.

Krone will "be able to bring a perspective to the groups she addresses that they've never heard before," said Allen Gutterman, Santa Anita's vice president of marketing.

Santa Anita's speaker's bureau addresses service organizations, schools, and youth and sports groups, as well as business groups.

MIAMI - Nominations were released earlier this week for the four $100,000 stakes that make up the Grand Slam I card on Dec. 1. And while the My Charmer and Tropical Turf handicaps attracted many horses, as expected, there was surprisingly little interest in the two juvenile races, the What a Pleasure and Three Ring stakes.

ARCADIA, Calif. - A seven-furlong Grade 3 stakes seems an overly ambitious spot for a California-bred 2-year-old making his first start since a statebred maiden race three months earlier.

Bob Black Jack, however, will enter the $100,000 Hollywood Prevue on Thursday with the highest dry-track Beyer Speed Figure in the field. Even more impressive, he earned his 88 Beyer in August even while battling tender shins.

"Fitness-wise, we're ready to go," trainer James Kasparoff said.

NEW ORLEANS - "It's as big a shot in the arm as somebody could ask for." The shot would be the bulk of the horses currently racing for Claiborne Farm, and the arm would be that of Al Stall, one of the perennial leaders among trainers at Fair Grounds.

While Stall has trained horses for Claiborne Farm in past years, the farm has turned over more than half of the horses it has in training, many owned in partnership with Adele Dilschneider.

NEW ORLEANS - At age 46, the trainer Mark Casse is coming to Fair Grounds for the first time. New Orleans and much of the racing public might not know him, but make no mistake - Casse knows racing. Of those 46 years, most have been spent around horses, and Casse already is a 30-year veteran of the sport.

The son of Florida horseman Norman Casse, Mark Casse began running his father's barn when he was a 15-year-old. At 18, he had a license and was out on his own.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The connections of Xchanger have decided to forgo the Grade 3 Discovery Handicap to take a shot at the Gradeo1 Cigar Mile on Saturday at Aqueduct.

Xchanger, who already has won two Grade 3 races in his career, would have been the starting highweight and potential favorite in the $100,000 Discovery, a race restricted to 3-year-olds also on Saturday's Aqueduct card. In the $300,000 Cigar Mile, he will be taking on the likes of Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Midnight Lute, the improving Tasteyville, and the promising Daaher. Diamond Isle is possible.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - With such stars as Street Sense, Hard Spun, and Lawyer Ron already having been retired, there is more to come following the $500,000 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs, as at least three horses in the field will be making their final starts Friday: Istan, Magna Graduate, and Purim. Nevertheless, the show goes on with a highly competitive field of nine entered Tuesday for the Grade 2 Clark, a 1 1/8-mile race with no clear-cut favorite.

NEW ORLEANS - At places like 150-year-old City Park, post-Katrina New Orleans still feels a little like the end of the world. Most of the 1,300-acre park, which basically was underwater following the epic hurricane, remains deserted. Thick, twining vegetation chokes its three 18-hole golf courses. Wild boars were captured there.