ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Dance With Ravens and Gold Strike, who are expected to vie for favoritism in Sunday's $1 million Queen's Plate, will have eight rivals in a competitive 146th running of Canada's most prestigious race.

A surprise entrant, the maiden Molinaro Beau, joined the prospective field here Thursday morning when a ceremonial draw was conducted at the annual Queen's Plate breakfast.

In the two-tiered draw, a selection order first was established and the connections then chose their own post positions.

The Stanley Hough-trained Travelator, who comes off a sharp score in the Candy Eclair Stakes at Monmouth Park, is the horse to beat in Saturday's $100,000 My Juliet Stakes at Philadelphia Park. That is, if she shows up.

Hough also entered in in the West Long Branch Stakes at Monmouth, and was not going to decide until Friday at the earliest as to where she will start.

A winner of 10 of 26 career starts, Travelator is the 2-1 favorite on the morning line in the six-furlong My Juliet. She'll be ridden by Harry Vega, the leading rider at Philadelphia Park.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Eddie Broome puts Silver Moose back on the turf for the $55,000 Gilded Times Stakes Saturday at Monmouth Park.

Broome claimed Silver Moose for $30,000 on March 14 at Gulfstream Park. Silver Moose promptly won his first start for the new barn in a five-furlong grass allowance race.

Broome raised the bar in the next start, the Select Stakes on the main track at Monmouth. Silver Moose didn't break well and finished fourth.

MIAMI - Dream On Dream On struggled to win his maiden over the main track as a 2-year-old. But once switched permanently to the grass as a 3-year-old by trainer Bill Kaplan, Dream On Dream On improved dramatically.

Although the average daily ontrack handle on Stampede Park races rose slightly at this year's Thoroughbred meet, overall handle on Stampede races dropped nearly 8 percent.

The gross ontrack handle this year was $5,111,160 for a 45-day meet, compared with $5,163,099 for a 46-day stand in 2004, a drop of 1.01 percent. But the average daily ontrack handle was $113,581, up 1.2 percent from $112,241 last year.

Total handle on Thoroughbred racing from all sources averaged $199,031 daily, down 6.3 percent from 2004's $212,486.

AUBURN, Wash. - Strollin Slew looms as the one to beat in Saturday's top offering at Emerald Downs, a $25,000 optional claiming affair for fillies and mares to be run at 6 1/2 furlongs.

EDMONTON, Alberta - Deputy Country, Alberta's reigning horse of the year, has drawn the rail and will be looking for his second straight Journal Handicap victory at Northlands Park Saturday.

The $50,000 Journal, a 6 1/2-furlong race for 3-year-olds and upward, attracted a field of nine.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The feature race at Hastings Saturday drew five horses, but it really boils down to a battle between Nineleventurbo and Lethal Grande. Coeur Joie, Victory Light, and Orphan Child would all have to improve dramatically to contend with the top two in the $50,000 optional race for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Dave Block caught the horse racing bug years ago, and spread it throughout his nuclear family. His son, Chris, developed a full-blown case of Thoroughbred fever, and it has been through his roll as trainer that the Blocks have become a consistent player in Illinois racing.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Take Achance on Me is an excellent sprinter by Illinois-bred standards. The problem is he has spent very little time in Illinois.

Funny, because Take Achance on Me has been about everywhere. A 7-year-old owned by W.D. Everett and trained by Mike Trombetta, Take Achance on Me has started at 19 different tracks during a 43-race career. He has always been based in Maryland, however, and has ventured to Illinois only twice, finishing second in the 2003 White Oak Handicap and winning the Chicagoland Handicap two months ago at Hawthorne.