ARCADIA, Calif. - Romance Is Diane is on a three-race winning streak, with the most recent win coming in the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes in December. She should be a top contender for Saturday's $250,000 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita, but the race is full of other prominent fillies.

Baroness Thatcher won the Gradeo3 Santa Ysabel Stakes on Jan.o6, a day before Rags to Riches impressively beat maidens. Jump On In won the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes on Jan. 15. Slew o' Platinum won the minor Sun Devil Stakes at Turf Paradise on Jan. 20.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Wayne Catalano had three choices for Eclipse Award winner Dreaming of Anna's 3-year-old debut this winter at Gulfstream Park. There was the 6 1/2-furlong Old Hat or one-mile Davona Dale Stakes on Saturday, or the Gaily Gaily Stakes over the turf two weeks later.

The suspense ended early Thursday afternoon when Saturday's overnight revealed Catalano had decided on the $150,000 Old Hat, much to the chagrin of the connections of the five other 3-year-old fillies entered in the Grade 3 dash.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Mr. Pursuit returns to Oaklawn on Saturday for the Grade 3, $100,000 Essex Handicap a more accomplished runner than he was here a year ago, and he made good use of his time then. Mr. Pursuit won his maiden race and a first-level allowance here last meet, but since then has gone on to win the $275,000 Oklahoma Derby and the $75,000 Governor's Cup, both at Remington.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Is it possible for a legitimate Kentucky Derby contender to bloom at Aqueduct in the winter? Saturday's $65,000 Whirlaway Stakes will go a long way in determining that.

Arguably the three best 3-year-olds seen around here this winter - Lawrence the Roman, Summer Doldrums, and Sports Town - are all entered in the Whirlaway, run at 1o1/16 miles over the inner track. All three have run impressive races, but all three have more to prove.

NEW ORLEANS - A deadpan question was put to trainer Neil Howard this week: How's Mineshaft? Howard looked wistfully over at the first stall in his shed row, occupied four years ago by Mineshaft. "I wish," Howard said.

Instead of the horse Mineshaft, there is a Grade 3, $200,000 race named the Mineshaft at Fair Grounds on Saturday, and Howard has a horse for it, though Patriot Act has neither the speed nor the sheer ability of his champion predecessor. The issue for Patriot Act and others in the Mineshaft field is this: Can Master Command be caught?

Missy Can Do seeks to win the $10,000 Bold Accent Stakes at Fonner Park for the fourth consecutive year when she heads a compact but strong field of five in the half-mile sprint for fillies and mares.

Curtis Kimes, who teamed up with the now 7-year-old Missy Can Do to win the 2005 running of this stakes, will be back aboard for trainer Joe Thomas.

A trio of 4-year-olds will join the mix, including multiple stakes winners Nikki Nine and Lovesablumin, along with J. J.'s Bobble, who won her only career start last May.

Sweet Idea will be moving back to turf for the 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares, which drew a competitive field of nine. She has made three career starts on the grass, with her best showing a runner-up finish in the $60,000 Lone Star Oaks, when she was beaten a head by Aly's Vow.

Sweet Idea won the $75,000 Martanza on dirt in her first start of the Sam Houston meet Dec. 2, then came back and won the $25,000 Space City in her next start, Dec. 16. In her most recent outing, she was fourth in the $50,000 Sam Houston Distaff on Jan. 27.

The state's stallion roster has gotten a boost with the relocation of Grade 1 winner Vaudeville to Hidden Springs Ranch in Yarnell, Ariz., for the 2007 season.

A 16-year-old by Theatrical out of S'Nice, by Riverman, Vaudeville will stand for $1,500.

Mark Dyer and Jennifer Waitman purchased Vaudeville, the winner of Arlington's Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes in 1994, from Tommy Town Thoroughbreds, which had been standing him at Running Horse Farm in Albuquerque, N.M.

Song of Navarone may have earned his way into the $600,000 WinStar Derby, to be run at Sunland Park on March 18. The 3-year-old did the local set proud in last Saturday's Grade 3 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita. The runner-up in the Riley Allison Futurity, he set the pace in the 1 1/8-mile Sham and then kept on doggedly when tackled first by Liquidity at the top of the lane and then by Ravel in midstretch.

Trainer Bret Calhoun signaled his intent to have a strong meet at Sam Houston Race Park back in November, when he went 4 for 4 with his starters on one of the first cards of the season. Since then, Calhoun has continued to win races at an above-average rate at the track to lead the current trainer standings by six wins over John Locke.

Calhoun has won 27 races from 86 starters this meet at Sam Houston, for a 31 percent win rate. He also has a division of horses at Fair Grounds, where he ranked fourth in the standings with 16 wins from 77 starters through Wednesday.