ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Just Rushing led the Woodbine meet last year in races won, with 7 in 11 starts and earnings of $301,856.

And while Just Rushing has been less productive this season, he has finished out of the money just once in seven starts, six of them coming in stakes - and he's earned another $196,539.

Just Rushing also became a graded stakes winner in his season debut, taking the Grade 3 Vigil at seven furlongs, and will be looking to close out his campaign on a winning note here in Sunday's Grade 3, $125,000 Kennedy Road.

STICKNEY, Ill. - Chic Dancer, one of Chicago's best year-round turf horses, will be making the final start of her career on Sunday at Hawthorne, and she'll be doing so under unfamiliar conditions. Chic Dancer, 6, is one of 13 fillies and mares entered in the Wooden Star, a $45,000 overnight stakes carded for five furlongs on turf.

Turf, Chic Dancer is well acquainted with, having won 8 of her 20 starts on various grass courses, but mainly at Arlington, where she won the Grade 3 Modesty Handicap in 2006. But five furlongs - that's a whole new ballgame for Chic Dancer.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Watch out for the girls from Brazil. Zardana, who won all three of her starts in her native land by a combined margin of 39 lengths, and Greetings, who was a Group 3 stakes winner before heading to the United Arab Emirates, both will be making their U.S. debuts at Hollywood Park in Sunday's fourth race, a third-level allowance.

PORTLAND, Ore. - G.D. Khalsa, who trains the filly Lady's Purse for owner Michael Pollowitz, finds himself between a rock and a hard place in this weekend's twin stakes for 2-year-olds.

MIAMI - The $35,000 Stormy Frolic Stakes, which highlights Sunday's program, is the first race to be significantly affected by the purse cuts that were instituted by management here last week.

The Stormy Frolic, an overnight event for 3-year-old fillies, was originally valued at $50,000, which meant the race would have also carried black type for the first three finishers. Horses earn black type, an important measure of their value as potential broodmare or stallion prospects, only in races with purses of $50,000 or more.

NEW ORLEANS - "A year of transitions" is the now familiar refrain for New Orleanians, more so for those associated with the Fair Grounds. Three years ago, it was the sale of the track to Churchill Downs, two years ago it was a season lost to Hurricane Katrina, and last year was the struggle to begin racing again.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Midnight Lute made a strong late run to beat nine rivals in the Breeders' Cup Sprint last month at Monmouth Park.

The 4-year-old Midnight Lute, trained by Bob Baffert, could face a much smaller field next Saturday at Aqueduct in a bid for a third straight Grade 1 victory in the $300,000 Cigar Mile.

The Cigar Mile is the main attraction of the four-day HolidayFest weekend, the last major stakes action of the year in New York.

As of Friday, stakes coordinator Andrew Byrnes had only three confirmed starters: Midnight Lute, Daaher, and Tasteyville.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Jockey Club of Canada, which organizes and hosts the annual Sovereign Awards, announced the three finalists in each of four media categories on Friday.

The finalists for newspaper article, feature story, photograph, and film/video/broadcast were chosen from a list of submissions by a panel of independent judges.

MIAMI - Frank Gomez, who set the standard for every trainer to pass through Calder Race Course since the track first opened in 1971, retired early this week due to failing health.

Gomez, 78, won more than 100 stakes during his 36-year tenure at Calder. By comparison, Manny Tortora is second on the list with 59 stakes wins. Overall, Gomez recorded more than 1,000 victories at his home track while capturing four local training titles. He was also the leading trainer at Gulfstream Park in 1982.

Gomez retired with 1,423 winners and purse earnings in excess of $24 million.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Financing-available, Canada's champion filly or mare last year and a leading candidate for that honor again this season, has been retired.

An Ontario-sired 6-year-old owned by K.K. Sangara, Financingavailable was headed for the $150,000 Bessarabian on Nov. 25 when she was found to have a small tear of the tendon sheath near her left ankle, said trainer Lorne Richards.

"She did the same thing when she was 3, and it healed up good," he said.