The year promises to go out with a bang on Saturday at Evangeline Downs, where five 2-year-olds will line up in the $100,000 Diamond Jo Stakes, the meeting's richest race.

Heading the field for the one-mile race is Premier Dance. A winner of six of his eight starts, has won five stakes in a row, including the Lafayette Stakes here on Labor Day weekend. His most recent start, a game half-length win in the $82,000 Eddy County Stakes at Zia Park on Nov. 25, came at one mile and was his first try around two turns.

Voo Kan Doo, whose last two out-of-town races were far better than either of his outings over the local course, looks like the fastest horse in the $40,000 Henry Mercer Memorial Stakes at Charles Town.

The seven-furlong race, restricted to West Virginia-bred 2-year-olds, is race 4 on a special matinee program that begins at 1 p.m.

Travelin Leroy has shown he is substantially faster than his competition in Saturday's Maryland Juvenile Championship at Laurel Park.

If Travelin Leroy runs anything close to the 95 Beyer Speed Figure he posted in his career debut last May at Belmont Park or the 90 Beyer he earned for his runner-up finish in an allowance at Delaware Park on Nov. 1, the other eight Maryland-bred 2-year-olds will be running for second in the one-mile stakes worth $75,000.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Del Mar is making a retroactive payment of $1 million to owners who had horses earn prize money in overnight races during the track's 2005 meeting.

The retroactive payment is the second from the meeting, held last summer. In August, a month after the meeting started, the track raised purses 5 percent and made the increase retroactive to the start of the season on July 20.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Leave Me Alone's 2005 racetrack tour ends on Saturday where it began, Santa Anita.

Back in January, she beat maidens here in her second career start and later in the meeting placed in a minor stakes. After that, her career took off. She raced at five other racetracks and won three stakes, most notably the Grade 1 Test at Saratoga in August.

Saturday, Leave Me Alone seeks her second Grade 1 win in the $250,000 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over seven furlongs.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - India Halo, the Argentine-bred mare who won the Ladies Handicap here on Dec. 17, will take on males in her next start, Saturday's $75,000 Gallant Fox Handicap at Aqueduct.

Trainer Jimmy Ferraro said the 1 5/8 miles of the Gallant Fox is why he's choosing to wheel India Halo back on two weeks' rest and run her against the boys. Ferraro's other option was to wait for the Affectionately Handicap on Jan. 14.

"That's the main thing," Ferraro said of the distance. "Plus, she's feeling good, she's sharp."

MIAMI - Jockey Jerry Bailey will pick and choose his mounts carefully this winter at Gulfstream Park as he continues to wind down his brilliant Hall of Fame career. But he didn't hesitate to accept an offer from trainer Frank Gomez to ride In Summation when the once-beaten youngster kicks off his 3-year-old campaign on Jan. 7 in Gulfstream Park's one-mile Aventura Stakes.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - No one would have thought twice had trainer Del Carroll entered Coined for Success in Wednesday's $75,000 Alex M. Robb Handicap. After all, he finished second behind Carminooch in the Gander Stakes and Carminooch was favored to win the Robb.

But Carroll opted for what he hopes is a softer spot in Friday's third-level allowance race at Aqueduct. , winless in 11 months, looms the controlling speed in the 1 1/16-mile race, which also includes an optional claiming tag of $75,000. Five of the seven runners are eligible to be claimed.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The American debut of Quickfire at Santa Anita on Friday can provide the English import with the one thing that is missing from her 2005 campaign - a victory.

, who recently joined trainer Bobby Frankel's stable, placed in two stakes in England earlier this year. She finished second in the Group 3 Musidora Stakes at York in May and second in the Oak Tree Stakes at Goodwood in July.

Quickfire has finished 11th and fifth in her last two starts, both minor stakes.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - A win in Friday's optional claiming feature, for those who have not won twice at a mile or farther on the turf this year, would be a great way to end the season on a high note for someone in the field of 10. Several entered in the one-mile turf race with an $80,000 claiming option have dealt with disappointment this year, but for others, such as Sampson's Son, a win on Friday would be icing on the cake.