Jockey Rosemary Homeister Jr., who announced her retirement in November 2004, has decided to resume her career and will begin accepting mounts at Calder beginning Saturday, June 17.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Five weeks was an awfully long time before the Kentucky Derby, long enough to scare some skeptics from selecting Barbaro for that reason alone. Yet the same five-week layoff that some handicappers found so disconcerting for the Derby is a non-issue for just about any other race throughout the year, including the Belmont Stakes, where, in recent years, fresh has been best.

ELMONT, N.Y. - If it ever stops raining long enough to run races on the grass, Saturday's Grade 1, $400,000 Manhattan Handicap at Belmont Park should offer bettors plenty of options, and, in the end, the handicap turf division could have a clear leader.

The field of nine entered for the Manhattan, scheduled for 1 1/4 miles on Belmont's inner turf course, includes winners of major stakes this year in Florida, Kentucky, and California. It also includes a pair of Grade 1 winners from last year, including the defending Manhattan winner, Good Reward.

ELMONT, N.Y. - A mile might be a little shorter than ideal for Teammate, and she has not run for three months. But the allure of a potential victory in a Grade 1 race makes the $250,000 Acorn Stakes a tempting target for trainer Allen Jerkens, who will bring Teammate back to the races on Saturday in a competitive renewal of one of Belmont Park's elite races for 3-year-old fillies.

The Acorn, a one-turn mile, has lured a field of nine, including such well-regarded runners as Ermine, the Kentucky Oaks runner-up, and Adieu, who won the Frizette over this track last year.

ELMONT, N.Y. - When last they met, Too Much Bling crushed Songster by nine lengths in the Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes over a sloppy Aqueduct track. When they meet again in Saturday's $250,000 Woody Stephens Breeders' Cup Handicap - formerly the Riva Ridge - at Belmont Park, Tom Albertrani, the trainer of Songster, believes he may be able to turn the tables.

In the Bay Shore, and appeared much more comfortable over the sloppy going than did Songster. While Too Much Bling hasn't run since the Bay Shore, Songster came back to win the Grade 3 Hirsch Jacobs at Pimlico by 10 lengths.

ELMONT, N.Y. - It was the next-to-last race on the last day of racing on Aqueduct's inner dirt track, and it was an ordinary optional claimer with second-level allowance conditions. Who could have guessed Anew's half-length victory over Tiger would in retrospect turn out to be the toughest sprint of the winter, and that both would become contenders for Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 True North Handicap?

They came into that optional race off impressive wins in their first start of the year. But had merely won a first-level allowance at Gulfstream Park for Jimmy Jerkens.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Wend is a classy, multiple-stakes-winning mare, and Mirabilis continued her run of solid North American performances with an upset of Wend in the Distaff Turf Mile on the Kentucky Derby undercard. But the filly that really jumps off the page in Saturday's Grade 2, $300,000 Just a Game Handicap at Belmont Park is Gorella.

That is because in 2 of her last 3 starts, turned in excellent efforts against some of the best turf males in the nation.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Officials at the New York Racing Association may have been prescient when they decided to move Tom Albertrani from Barn 4 to Barn 10 at Belmont Park this spring.

Barn 10 is the former home of D. Wayne Lukas, the last trainer to win two Triple Crown races in the same year with different horses. Albertrani can equal that feat when he saddles Deputy Glitters in Saturday's $1 million .

ELMONT, N.Y. - Dr. Larry Bramlage will be dressed for a television appearance Saturday at Belmont Park, but he would be happiest if you never saw him.

Bramlage will be the veterinarian ABC Sports turns to should there be a horse-related injury in the . The American Association of Equine Practitioners provides a vet, free of charge, to ABC, ESPN, CBS, and NBC for all their televised races, but the only time viewers see the vet is if a horse gets hurt.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Six weeks after he overwhelmed fellow California-breds in the Khaled Stakes on turf and four weeks before he is scheduled to defend his title in the Hollywood Gold Cup, Lava Man will attempt a career first in Saturday's $300,000 at Hollywood Park.

The multi-millionaire Lava Man is trying to win his first Grade 1 on turf.

Lava Man has won five stakes since he was claimed for $50,000 in August 2004, including victories in two Grade 1 dirt races, the Gold Cup last summer and the Santa Anita Handicap in March.