ELMONT, N.Y. - Rags to Riches will pass Saturday's $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks after spiking a fever, but the favorite for the Grade 1 race may come out of the same barn.

On Tuesday, trainer Todd Pletcher reported that of his five other nominees, "very likely Octave is the one most likely to run."

After running second in five consecutive stakes, including the Kentucky Oaks behind Rags to Riches, Octave broke through with a Grade 1 win in the Mother Goose on June 30, in which she edged a stubborn Lady Joanne after a long drive.

A full and competitive field befitting a $1 million purse has been entered for Saturday's Virginia Derby, the Grade 2 turf race that anchors the richest program of the Colonial Downs meet.

Many of the top 3-year-old turf runners in North America are among the field of 10 entered in the Virginia Derby, including the top finishers in several key races of recent weeks.

DEL MAR, Calif. - At the grand age of 32, Jose Valdivia Jr. has watched the jockeys' room in Southern California change around him in recent months.

"I feel like I'm old," he said recently. "There are so many young riders."

Yes, young fellows such as Michael Baze, 20, and Joe Talamo, 17, finished one-two in the jockeys standings at the Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting, well ahead of Valdivia, who finished sixth with 30 wins.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - It has happened again. Lewis Michael has turned in a top performance when it mattered least. Not that winning a high-end allowance race on Sunday at Arlington was meaningless, but the winner's share of a $37,500 purse pales in comparison to the money Lewis Michael could earn if he merits a career at stud. That's not so far-fetched, either, since Lewis Michael is in general from a good family, and in particular a full brother to champion filly Dreaming of Anna.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Komax, who has won his last five starts, will take on stakes winners Random Gold and Lineofbull in a competitive feature race Thursday night at Lone Star Park. A mix of established and promising horses are entered in the $35,000 optional claimer, which will be run at 6 1/2 furlongs. The feature will go as the eighth on a nine-race card.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Josie Carroll's barn seems to be chock full of precocious and productive 2-year-olds, and Alvena became the first stakes winner of the group here in last Sunday's Shady Well at Woodbine.

"We've definitely liked this filly from the start," said Carroll. "This race was certainly in our sights."

Alvena, bred at owner Jim and Alice Sapara's Winsong Farm in Kentucky, had finished second when beginning her career in a 4 1/2-furlong maiden special, and then graduated impressively at the same distance four weeks later.

Rags to Riches will not run Saturday in the $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks after developing a fever, trainer Todd Pletcher said Monday.

The first filly to win the Belmont Stakes in 102 years, Rags to Riches showed symptoms on Sunday, forcing Pletcher to postpone a scheduled workout. Pletcher waited until Monday, hoping the temperature would return to normal. When it didn't, the Coaching Club American Oaks was ruled out.

Pletcher said Rags to Riches had a temperature of 101 on Sunday morning, and it remained in that range Monday.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Million Preview Day may merit more than mere moniker status this year.

Indeed, Arlington's three-weeks-out series of prep races for Arlington Million Day itself often does little more than showcase a series of lesser-lights lacking the class to compete in the three Grade 1s on Million Day (Aug. 11), but regardless of who turns up here next month, Saturday's three stakes appear to ably stand on their own.

Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., will hold simultaneous turf and dirt races during its card on Sunday in which the order of finish, for parimutuel purses, will be determined by the combined results of the races.

Trainer Kelly Breen is using the $40,000 allowance feature Thursday at Monmouth Park as the prep to get Meadow Blue ready for a repeat bid in the Lincroft Handicap here on the Haskell Day undercard.

Meadow Blue ran the race of his life in last year's Lincroft for New Jersey-breds. The colt pulled away to a 7 1/2-length win, earning a career-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure.

Now 4, Meadow Blue has run twice here this year, finishing third in an open allowance in May followed by a rallying second in the Bernie Dowd Handicap against statebreds on June 17.