The 38-date summer Quarter Horse season at Sam Houston Race Park begins Friday night with the trials to the Grade 3 Bayer Legend Texas Derby Challenge and the Grade 3 John Deere Texas Challenge.

Trials were scheduled for the MBNA America Texas Challenge for older horses, but when only 12 horses entered the trials, it was decided to cancel the trials and allow all 12 horses to run in the finals on July 9. SLM Snowman will head the finals when he returns to the scene of his 1 3/4-length victory in the Grade 1, $300,000 MBNA America Challenge Championship on Nov. 6.

MIAMI - Trainer Tim Ritvo has never won a Calder training title. But after the first 42 days of the current meet, Ritvo, a former jockey, is sitting comfortably atop the trainer standings with 16 victories, four more than perennial champion Bill White.

Ritvo, a Massachusetts native, re-located to Calder from Suffolk Downs in 1990 along with his wife Kathy, who at the time was already an established trainer. Ritvo took out his own license in 1997 and has had considerable success in recent years but never enough stock to compete for a training title.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Jockey Chris DeCarlo hopes to find a target to track in Friday's $44,000 allowance feature at Monmouth Park.

DeCarlo has the mount on Houston's Prayer, a 5-year-old gelding who makes his second start at the meet for trainer Brad Wallace. In his first start at the meet, Houston's Prayer turned in a game effort and missed by a neck May 30.

"He showed more speed than Brad had expected," DeCarlo said. "When I made the lead, he kind of waited a little bit. Hopefully, there will be someone who goes, so I can stalk."

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Leading apprentice Justin Stein notched the first stakes victory of his short career aboard No Sox Fox in the colts and geldings division of the CTHS Sales Stakes at Hastings last Sunday. It appears that Stein, who is fourth in the standings, will be one of the candidates for leading rider.

He won five races on June 12 and is consistently riding live horses. He is also very much in demand. Just ask Hastings' all-time leading trainer, Harold Barroby, whose son Trapper handles Stein's business.

Suspicious Minds may be an 8-year-old now, but there is still plenty of gas in the tank. The veteran runner ran his career record to 14 wins in 61 starts with an easy gate-to-wire victory in the $15,000 Les Mackin Handicap at Yavapai Downs on Tuesday.

The champ is back.

Rockem Sockem, the 2004 Great Lakes Downs horse of the year, made his return to his home track a successful one when he was best by a length in the $50,000 Wolverine Stakes on Monday evening.

The track's leading rider, Terry Houghton, was aboard Rockem Sockem, a 4-year-old gelding owned by Henry Mast and trained by Dr. Bob Gorham.

Ever since Tommy Pompell began skipping the start of Fairmount Park's meet in order to remain at Tampa Bay Downs as first-call rider for Tampa's leading trainer, Don Rice, a discernible statistical trend has emerged at Fairmount. From the beginning of the meet at the end of March through mid-May or so, Ralph Martinez's barn and its primary rider, Ramsey Zimmerman, absolutely dominate the trainer and jockey standings.

During this period, four victories in a day's work are hardly exceptional for Martinez and Zimmerman. Hardly exceptional, that is, until Pompell hits town.

Comedian Tim Conway will be making a visit to Canterbury Park to help commemorate the creation of the Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund. Conway will be the honored guest and will also perform at a benefit dinner in the track's Ascot Lounge on July 9.

All proceeds from the benefit will be donated to the MacBeth fund. Limited seating is available, and tickets can be purchased by contacting jockey agent Barb Noll.

Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw, Okla., is expected to be the first track to operate electronic gaming in Oklahoma. Track officials told state racing commissioners during a meeting late last week that construction on a gaming facility was scheduled to be complete in one week. Blue Ribbon's gaming license application will be considered in July.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - With the Queen's Plate front and center here this week, it is fitting that Wake at Noon, a former Plate participant, is among the leading contenders for Friday's allowance feature.

Wake at Noon is 8 years old, and his fifth-place finish in the 2000 Queen's Plate may be a distant memory. But the seven-furlong distance and company in Friday's feature should be to the liking of Wake at Noon, who was Canada's Horse of the Year in 2002 and has earned $1.65 million.