ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Noble Stella will be out to win the 1 1/8-mile Dance Smartly Handicap for fillies and mares for the second consecutive year on Saturday at Woodbine.

Noble Stella has evolved into one of the leading turf females in North America this year under the guidance of trainer Roger Attfield. She led throughout in her second start of the year in the Grade 3 Bewitch at 1 1/2 miles at Keeneland in April, then ended up second to Honey Ryder in the Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay Handicap at Belmont Park in May.

FORT ERIE, Ontario - Following the fourth-place finish of Ascot Bill in the Queen's Plate three weeks ago, his jockey Justin Stein declared excitedly that it was his mount's "best race of his life."

Stein, an apprentice, was aboard Ascot Bill in all four of his races this year. He wasn't in the saddle when Ascot Bill won his debut in his lone start last year.

"[Ascot Bill] was closing more ground than anyone else in the race," Stein said. "He was flying. It was unbelievable. It was like he was almost sprinting."

MIAMI - Madcap Escapade used her abundant speed to run the opposition off their feet during an all-too-brief career that ended prematurely following her convincing 5 1/4-length victory in the 2005 Princess Rooney Handicap at Calder. But the family legacy has been ably carried on by her younger half-sister, Dubai Escapade, who will be heavily favored to defend her sibling's title in Saturday's 22nd renewal of the Grade 1 .

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Lucky J. H., the winner of two stakes at Hollywood Park this year, will miss the $300,000 San Diego Handicap on July 22 because of a foot problem, trainer Carla Gaines said.

Gaines said that Lucky J. H. has resumed training, and galloped at Santa Anita on Wednesday, but that he will not be ready for the Grade 2 San Diego at 1 1/16 miles.

"It's nagging, and it's not 100 percent," Gaines said of the foot. "I missed a work because of it."

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Three races for optional claimers and allowance runners highlight Friday's program at Hollywood Park, the start of the final weekend of the spring-summer meeting.

In those three fields, there is only one stakes winner from the last year - a one-eyed filly who has been entered for an $80,000 claiming price.

, the winner of the minor Black Swan Stakes at Fairplex Park last September, starts in the seventh race, an optional claimer for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles on turf.

ELMONT, N.Y. - With most of the major races for grass fillies and mares run in the second half of the year, trainer Bobby Frankel saw no reason to rush Melhor Ainda back to the races coming off season-ending ankle surgery last fall.

But in order to be ready for races such as the Beverly D., Flower Bowl, and Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, it is now time to get started. Melhor Ainda will begin her 4-year-old campaign Friday at Belmont Park in the $65,000 Capades Stakes at 1 1/16 miles over Belmont's Widener Turf Course.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It will just be a matter of days when Julien Leparoux rejoins his mentor, trainer Patrick Biancone, at Saratoga, where Leparoux went virtually unnoticed last summer accepting the first mounts of a North American riding career that has since zoomed off the charts.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - A total of 63 horses were entered Wednesday morning in the seven races comprising Saturday's Claiming Crown at Canterbury Park, and non-sweaters need not apply.

With some national focus on Canterbury, the local forecast is for swelter. Temperatures on the track's biggest day should approach 100 degrees out here on the Minnesota prairie Saturday afternoon. And while a late 4 p.m. Central first post for the 12-race card helps, even when the day's richest race, the $150,000 Jewel, is run at dusk, the theme of the day may be heat.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - The plain Jane bay mare standing in Barn C-11 on the Canterbury Park backstretch Wednesday morning, a fan blowing up at her from the shed row, could have been any old anonymous horse. But the halter laid next to her stall read "Rue des Reves," meaning this was the defending champion in the Lady Canterbury Handicap.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - A rare weekday stakes race will be run Friday at Louisiana Downs - the $50,000 Elge Rasberry, which drew an overflow field of 14 Louisiana-bred 3-year-old fillies. The headliner will be run at about one mile on the turf.

There is no shortage of stakes performers in the Rasberry, as five of the fillies have earned black type - but established turf form is much harder to find. Half of the horses of will be making their turf debuts, including multiple stakes winners Hottamolly and Tortuga Flats.