It's time for J'ray to start playing catch-up. While her Todd Pletcher-trained stablemates, Wait a While and Magnificent Song, spent the summer soaring to the top of North America's 3-year-old filly turf division, J'ray did little more than train in the mornings and stand in her stall in the afternoons.

But when the Grade 3, $125,000 Valley View Stakes is run Friday at Keeneland, J'ray will rejoin the chase. A three-time stakes winner on grass, she will make her first start since she finished third in the April 23 Appalachian Stakes here in the spring.

In recent years, horses based at Woodbine haven’t had much of an impact on the Canadian International or E.P. Taylor Stakes, whose rich pots lure some serious shippers from overseas and south of the border. But the tide may be about to turn this Sunday, when Sky Conqueror is poised to give the invaders a serious run for the money in the Canadian International and Arravale could be the filly to beat in the E.P. Taylor.

Bright Gold, the defending champion, and Society Hostess, a two-time stakes winner at Belmont this year, are among the talented shippers packed into an overflow field of filly-mare turf-sprint specialists in the Thursday feature at Keeneland, the $100,000 Franklin County Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf.

For the connections of More Than Regal, there was little drama in drawing post 6 in a 12-horse field for Friday night's $250,000 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park. The important thing is the trip he gets, said his trainer, Scott Blasi.

"Believe me, I'm more concerned about what happens at the quarter pole than what happens at the start," said Blasi.

Posts for the Oklahoma Derby, a 1 1/8-mile race, were drawn Tuesday, and More Than Regal should be one of the favorites. He has won three stakes this year, including the $250,000 Iowa Derby in June.

Take nothing away from Green Vegas. He has improved dramatically since capturing the Foolish Pleasure Stakes in his two-turn debut last month, and he certainly was a deserving winner of Saturday's $400,000 In Reality Stakes at 1 1/16 miles. To his credit, Green Vegas was also good enough to take advantage when his two chief rivals in the In Reality, Straight Faced and Villainage, were dealt with adversity in the race.

Perhaps the main variable in Thursday's Bay Meadows feature, a 5 1/2-furlong starter allowance for 2-year-old fillies, is the switch from Golden Gate Fields to Bay Meadows. All but one of the six runners graduated during the recent Golden Gate Fields meeting. The sixth, Party of Two, is the lone runner to have won - or even raced - here.

The race is open to maiden winners who have run for a tag at some point in their careers. Thursday's race features winners ranging from the $12,500 bottom maiden claiming level up to $32,000 maiden winners.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Downtown Sanger was not supposed to win last time out. Few horses can win after breaking from post 12 in a one-mile turf race at Santa Anita.

But the improving 3-year-old accomplished the improbable. Despite the outside spot, Downtown Sanger raced wire to wire in the maiden race for California-breds, becoming only the fifth horse this decade at Santa Anita to win from post 12 at a mile on grass.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Victor Espinoza will replace Alex Solis on Breeders' Cup Juvenile contender Principle Secret, trainer Christopher Paasch said Tuesday. Solis rode Principle Secret all three starts, including a win in the Grade 2 Best Pal and a runner-up finish last out in the Grade 2 Norfolk Stakes.

"Alex Solis is a great rider, but we decided to make a change," Paasch said. He declined to elaborate.

Espinoza also will replace Solis on Paasch-trained Juvenile Fillies longshot She's Included, eighth-place finisher in the Grade 2 Alcibiades.

CHICAGO - The third-level allowance horses and $40,000 claimers in the featured fourth race on Thursday at Hawthorne are pretty nice, the race fairly interesting. But later on the program, in a second-level sprint allowance for Illinois-breds, fans can see whether the high-level ability Rochester Cat flashed last spring has carried through an injury layoff and into the next phase of the gelding's career. If it has, Rochester Cat could emerge as a player in the Illinois-bred sprint stakes division.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The fastest horses on the last Thursday card of the fall meet are in race 3, a six-furlong starter handicap with a purse of $30,000. A field of five older males was drawn Sunday, but 48 hours later Scott Lake revealed that The Student, an 18-time winner and the high weight at 124 pounds, would not make the trip from Delaware Park.

"He's not going to run," said Lake. "He was training [Tuesday] morning and he bled pretty good. He's going to the farm."