Lone Star Park will host the $1 million MBNA America Challenge Championships, a program of 12 major stakes for Quarter Horses, on Nov. 11. The card is part of a 36-race, $3.6 million stakes schedule for the track's Quarter Horse meet, which opens Oct. 6. The season will run for 32 nights, through Dec. 2.

ALBANY, Calif. - A Hall of Fame trainer and a record-setting jockey have turned a 2-year-old maiden race into the most intriguing race on Friday's Golden Gate Fields card.

Surf Academy will make his debut for trainer Neil Drysdale in a 1 1/16-mile turf maiden test against five rivals. Victor Espinoza, who set a Del Mar record by winning seven races there Monday, will ride.

"We've just been trying to find a spot," said Drysdale. "Obviously, he'll be a little green. He might need a race."

RUIDOSO, N.M. - Fastest qualifier Streakin Illusively and Retama Park Futurity winner Zoomin for Bux are the horses to beat in the Grade 1, $316,000 Sam Houston Futurity on Friday night at Sam Houston Race Park.

Streakin Illusively has three wins in four starts, with his sole defeat a third-place finish in the TQHA Sale Futurity as the 1-2 favorite. He rebounded from that loss in his Sam Houston trial, bobbling at the start and rallying to win in 20.268 seconds for 400 yards, the fastest qualifying time.

AUBURN, Wash. - Tuesday's Washington Thoroughbred Breeders Association summer yearling sale saw 153 yearlings change hands for $2,355,800, making for an average price of $15,397. The gross was down 12.6 percent from last year's summer sale, and the average was down 14.3 percent.

Contributing to the declines was an increase in the number of yearlings who did not reach their reserves, from 43 last year to 52 at Tuesday's sale. This list included the would-be sale topper, a Smoke Glacken colt, who did not reach his reserve despite receiving a bid for $77,000.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - Bettors face a familiar dilemma in Friday's optional claiming feature at Louisiana Downs.

On the one hand, there are a couple of young, developing fillies in the mile-and-70-yard test who are searching for their first victory outside the maiden ranks. On the other, there is a pair of veteran mares who are going very well at the present time and have been entered for the $16,000 claiming price.

Clouet and Specific each fit into the former category. Both joined the ranks of winners earlier in the summer and continue to make progress.

ALTOONA, Iowa - Beau Watch heads a field of 10 in Friday's $40,000 Central Iowa Stakes for fillies and mares, one of three Thoroughbred stakes on Friday's 12-race program at Prairie Meadows.

Beau Watch, trained by Eric Reed, captured the $60,000 Wild Rose Stakes here on June 3, scoring a front-running neck victory at the same 1 1/16-mile distance as the Central Iowa. Beau Watch returned to run second in a $75,000 stakes at Mountaineer on June 20 before fading to finish ninth, beaten 11 lengths, in the Grade 3 Gardenia Handicap last out at Ellis Park.

It may lack the pomp and circumstance of Saratoga, but Belmont Park's 33-day fall meet that begins on Friday will surely not lack for drama and intrigue.

Of the 36 stakes races scheduled here over the next 6 1/2 weeks, 12 of them will be Grade 1 events that will help determine the top East Coast contenders for the 23rd Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships to be held Nov. 4 at Churchill Downs.

Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., concluded its 2006 meeting on Labor Day with gains in attendance, total and average daily handle, and offtrack wagering on the track's live races. Ontrack handle at the meet was down.

The 2006 meeting was shortened to 68 days as a result of a weather-related cancellation but still attracted 359,567 fans for an average daily attendance of 5,288, a 3 percent gain over 2005.

Handle from all sources averaged $531,219, a gain of 13.7 percent from 2005 when wagering averaged $467,210.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - The seemingly sudden success of Kelly John Breen is actually the product of 20 years of hard work and dedication.

Breen, only 37, is about to wrap up a second straight trainer title at Monmouth Park, and his 2-year-olds were prominent in Saratoga's juvenile stakes.

Some have called him an "overnight sensation," but "rising star" is a much better description.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer John Forbes has a plan to help Czarina's Girl in the $52,000 second-level allowance feature for New Jersey-bred fillies and mares Thursday at Monmouth Park.

"Maybe we should sneak out there with the water truck at night and just keep going around and around," he said.

, 4, loves a wet track. She caught slop on Aug. 26 and responded with a career-best victory. She drew off to a 3 1/2-length win and earned an 80 Beyer Speed Figure, the best last-race number among the seven runners in Thursday's six-furlong race.