ELMONT, N.Y. - When Outperformance finished second to Spider Power in an allowance race here on May 18, trainer Rick Violette felt that his 3-year-old colt might have made the lead too soon. As he watched Friday's Grade 3

unfold, Violette wondered if Outperformance would ever make the lead at all.

Racing in next-to-last position down the backstretch, Outperformance charged down the center of Belmont Park's soft Widener turf course and powered home a 1 1/2-length winner over Spider Power in Friday's Grade 3, $115,400 Hill Prince Stakes before 4,612 at Belmont.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Things haven't always gone smoothly for Seductively, sometimes through no fault of her own.

The horse to beat in Sunday's $500,000 Woodbine Oaks, based on her victory in the Grade 3 Selene on May 24, Seductively was quite green in her first two starts at 2, and in her penultimate outing, the Fury Stakes on May 7, she never got untracked after her saddle slipped.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Despite two purse increases in 2005, Del Mar is taking a cautious approach to overnight purses for the seven-week meeting that begins on July 19, with a top official expressing concern about a possible decline in business from a record season last year.

Overnight purses at the start of the forthcoming season will be the same as the conclusion of the 2005 meeting, but higher than the start of last year's meeting.

"It may be a conservative approach, but it's the approach [Del Mar] is taking," said Tom Robbins, the director of racing at Del Mar.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Daniel Franko has one hope for Muddy Woman in Sunday's Bay Meadows feature.

"I hope she comes back as good as she was," said Franko, who will start the 4-year-old filly for the first time in nearly nine months in a first-level allowance race at one mile on the grass.

last start was a victory at the distance in a $40,000 starter allowance race. Both of her career victories have come on this turf course, where she also has a second and a third in six starts.

Then came the layoff. "She had a shin problem," Franko said.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Chris Emigh has become the perennial leading rider in Chicago, but when the action moves to the northwest Chicago suburbs, the hierarchy shifts. Emigh has bubbled up to the top at the Hawthorne fall meet and the National Jockey Club spring meet, but has played second or third fiddle in recent Arlington meets to Shaun Bridgmohan, Rene Douglas, and Mark Guidry - basically, whichever "name" rider Arlington super-agent Dennis Cooper lines up for the meet.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Born to Dance is the kind of success story to which many owners aspire with a horse. Purchased as a yearling for about $10,000, she has gone on to earn $577,519.

Born to Dance was retired with a suspensory injury last month, after being pulled up during the running of the $100,000 Valid Expectations at Lone Star Park on May 29.

"She was just a great race mare," said owner Ro Parra. "She always, always tried. She sprinted and she went two turns. She was terrific."

BOSSIER CITY, La. - Sunday's $32,000 first-level allowance feature at Louisiana Downs, a five-furlong turf sprint, is loaded with unknowns. Specifically, eight of the nine Louisiana-bred fillies and mares in the field have yet to show how they will handle the transition from dirt to turf.

MIAMI - Florida racing lost a talented jockey and one of its best goodwill ambassadors when Rosemary Homeister Jr. decided to hang up her tack in November 2004. But Calder's leading lady for more than a decade couldn't get the sport she loved out of her blood, and on Friday announced she will resume her riding career at Calder beginning next weekend.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A couple of Kentucky Oaks also-rans made their returns to action Thursday at Churchill Downs, with a disparity in results.

Ex Caelis, who was eased in the May 5 Oaks, came back in winning style by capturing a 1 1/16-mile allowance from just off the pace. But later on the card, Miss Norman struggled in her first race for new connections, finishing fourth, beaten 13 lengths, in a 6 1/2-furlong allowance.

Trainer J. David Braddy had toyed with the idea of sending Yes He's the Man to New York for the Grade 2 Woody Stephens on the Belmont Stakes undercard, but instead opted to keep the 3-year-old colt at home in anticipation of facing much softer competition in Sunday's $65,000 Gilded Time Stakes at Monmouth Park.

The presence of Delaware shipper Master of Disaster and the long-idle Justawalkinthepark, however, could make Yes He's the Man work much harder in the six-furlong Gilded Time than he had in winning two similar sprint stakes in his last two starts.