PORTLAND, Ore. - Delinquenator will shoot for his fourth straight win when he takes on six challengers in Sunday's Portland Meadows feature, a $4,000 starter allowance at 1 3/16 miles.

Racing was canceled for a second consecutive day Friday at Fonner Park following a storm that left more than 20 inches of snow over much of Nebraska early in the week. Last Sunday's card was canceled when the heavy snow began falling.

Fonner's track was cleared Wednesday afternoon, but the remaining moisture froze on both Wednesday and Thursday nights as the temperature dropped overnight. The decision to cancel came at a Friday-morning meeting between track management and horsemen's representatives.

STICKNEY, Ill. - The fee for a late nomination to the Illinois Derby, due this weekend, is just $500, but the list of additional horses made eligible for the April 8 race provides insight to the shape of the signature event at the National Jockey Club meet.

Among them is My Golden Song, and since racing officials here have believed for several weeks that trainer Todd Pletcher would send to the race whichever horse he wound up nominating, the assumption is that My Golden Song has a good chance of making the trip to Hawthorne.

For the past two seasons Rocky Gulch has dominated the New Mexico-bred ranks, but he has now lost three straight races. The question as he goes into Sunland Park's $100,000 Mt. Cristo Rey Handicap on Sunday is whether the 5-year-old Rocky Gulch has lost a step or two.

The 122-pound highweight and likely favorite, Rocky Gulch attempts to dispel such doubts as he heads a full field of 10 New Mexico-breds going 4 1/2 furlongs.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Purim became the latest dual-surface stakes winner for trainer Tom Proctor earlier this month when he won the Grade 3, $150,000 Razorback Breeders' Cup at Oaklawn. The colt is also a Grade 3 winner on turf, and is now being pointed for the Grade 2, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap on April 8.

"I've been lucky," said Proctor. "Every time I get a good horse, it seems like they can go either way."

A significant increase in the purse for the Cotillion Handicap and a surface switch coupled with a new distance for the Larry Riviello President's Cup are the major changes on Philadelphia Park's stakes schedule for 2006.

The track will run nine major stakes this season from late May through early October. A list of smaller stakes restricted to statebreds will be released later.

Trainer Nick Zito has taken Great Point off the list of potential starters for the $1 million Florida Derby. Great Point injured an ankle leaving the gate during the Fountain of Youth Stakes on March 4, subsequently developed some filling in a hock and as a result won't be ready in time to compete in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on April 1.

FLORENCE, Ky. - As if the road to the Kentucky Derby needed any more variables.

Not only will the 35th be the first Derby prep run on Polytrack, but the likely favorite, Strong Contender, was excluded from a 12-horse field, giving the Grade 2 race a look so jumbled that even seasoned handicappers are scratching their heads.

"Now who's the favorite?" said Turfway oddsmaker Mike Battaglia. "I have no clue."

FLORENCE, Ky. - Strong Contender, the unbeaten colt who figured to be the favorite in the 35th Lane's End Stakes on Saturday at Turfway Park, was excluded from the race when 12 other 3-year-olds with higher earnings were entered Thursday.

The last time shippers from Santa Anita raced in the Bourbonette Breeders' Cup at Turfway Park, they dominated - Class Above and Susan's Angel finished one-two in the 2004 renewal. Two years later, similar results could occur when West Coast invaders Sabatini and Dance Daily race in Saturday's $150,000 Bourbonette Breeders Cup, one of four undercard stakes at Turfway on a program topped by the Grade 2 Lane's End. The Bourbonette has been elevated to Grade 3 status this year.