ARCADIA, Calif. - Choctaw Nation, the two-time winner of the San Diego Handicap who finished third in the Goodwood Breeders' Cup Handicap on Oct. 1, will make his next start in the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Belmont Park on Oct. 29, owner Bob Bone said Friday.

Bone said the prospect of starting the late-running Choctaw Nation in a race that may have ample speed is too tempting to pass.

"As long as that stretch is, and with all that speed, I think we'll have as good a chance as anyone," Bone said.

MIAMI - Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. had been hoping to work B. B. Best over the turf with an eye toward a possible appearance in next week's $200,000 Calder Derby. Unfortunately for him, the grass course has been closed for training over the past couple of weeks because of rainy weather, preventing Plesa from testing his Grade 1-placed 3-year-old over the surface.

As a son of Maryland-based sire Deputed Testamony, 5-year-old Donald's Pride was eligible to run in the Maryland Million. Instead of chasing Presidentialaffair in the $250,000 Maryland Million Classic, as he did last year as the distant fourth-place finisher, Donald's Pride has landed in a softer spot.

An easy winner under similar conditions in July, Donald's Pride should be a strong choice going 1 1/8 miles in Sunday's $50,000 HBPA Governor's Cup Handicap at Charles Town.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine rolled the dice two years ago when it moved the Canadian International and the E.P. Taylor Stakes back to the third week in October, just six days before the Breeders' Cup.

The International and the Taylor, both Grade 1 turf races, had been run at the end of September in 2001 and 2002, positioning both races as preps for the comparable Breeders' Cup events, which were run in California and Texas those years.

FORT ERIE, Ontario - Armand Concessi was almost successful in fighting back tears as he exited the winner's circle after his first-time starter Vintage Year romped to an 11 1/4-length victory here Tuesday in a maiden special weight race.

"I can't even talk right now," said Concessi, the owner, trainer, and breeder of Vintage Year.

Later, he said, "The horse was born two days after our son, Armando, was born - exactly at the same time, 6:30 a.m. We wanted to name the horse Six Thirty but it was rejected."

Concessi felt the colt was special from the start.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Sunday's $60,000-added Courtship Stakes at Bay Meadows could be a stepping-stone to the California Cup Juvenile Fillies for several of the six 2-year-old fillies in the field. Four of the runners are California-bred and therefore eligible to the Cal Cup, to be run at Santa Anita on Nov. 6.

was second in her lone race against maidens. But surrounding that second-place finish are a second in her debut in the Solano County Juvenile Fillies and then a victory in the $100,000 Generous Portion for Cal-breds at Del Mar.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - Paz Ciudadana has emerged as one of this region's best turf mares, and on Sunday she will return to Louisiana Downs, where her rise began, to start as the 123-pound highweight in the $40,000 Cornucopia Handicap on closing day.

Fourteen fillies and mares are in the turf race, to be run at about 1 1/16 miles. Other contenders are Due to Win Again, the second highweight at 121 pounds, who won the $100,000 River Cities here Sept. 10, and Pad the Wallet, winner of the $50,000 Old South here June 4.

STICKNEY, Ill. - David Lopez, all 107 pounds of him, was in a blue terry-cloth robe at noon Friday, hanging out in the Hawthorne jockeys' room, waiting for the second part of his workday to begin.

Lopez, who worked construction and other such jobs after college, started breezing horses three years ago. He launched his career as a race rider at the end of the Arlington meet and rode his first career winner here Thursday, guiding Liven on a Prayer to victory in the third race.

AUBURN, Wash. - With only next Saturday's Gottstein Futurity remaining on the Emerald Downs stakes schedule, the older stars on the grounds are looking farther afield for places to run.

Two of the best, Flamethrowintexan and Mr. Makah, are headed for the $100,000 British Columbia Premier's, a 1 3/8-mile race at Hastings next Sunday. Both are proven over the Hastings bullring, as Flamethrowintexan won last year's B.C. Derby and this season's Sir Winston Churchill in Vancouver, while Mr. Makah finished a close fourth in last year's running of the B.C. Premier's.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia- For the past four years Lord Nelson has been the undisputed champion older horse at Hastings. At one time or another, he has won just about every stakes race on the Hastings schedule, and without a doubt when he retires he will be inducted into the British Columbia Horseracing Hall of Fame.