Valentine Dancer will make a rare start outside of California on Monday in the Grade 3, $200,000 WinStar Distaff at Lone Star Park, and the last time she traveled for a race, the results were huge. Valentine Dancer raced out of state for the first time in January, when she flew to Gulfstream Park and captured the $500,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf.

She will invade Texas on Saturday with a planeload of horses coming from California to race in the six stakes that will make up the annual Lone Star Million Day on Monday.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Lt. Regent, a narrow winner in her most recent outing, will attempt to defeat many of the same horses in Friday's featured seventh race at Assiniboia. A full field of 10 has been entered for the 5 1/2-furlong race, a second-level allowance with a $16,000 claiming option.

In the May 13 race, Lt. Regent, trained by Emile Corbel and ridden by Rohan Singh, finished a head in front of Tamorons Blade, who closed well up the rail, and three-quarters of length better than Pete's Surprise, who finished strongly from the outside.

Ruidoso Downs' signature theme of Grade 1 futurities will be evident on opening day Friday, with Grade 1 West Texas Futurity winner Leading Spirit starting in the second of 17 trials to the Grade 1, $400,000 Ruidoso Futurity.

The 60-day Ruidoso season runs on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule, with Mondays added on Memorial Day, July 4, and Labor Day.

The 17 trials will start with the 1 p.m. Mountain first post and are expected to conclude by 7:45 p.m.

The 10 fastest qualifiers from Friday's trials are eligible for the 350-yard Ruidoso Futurity on June 12.

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - There is an air of optimism not seen for many years here at Marquis Downs as the 2005 Thoroughbred season begins Friday night.

Strong wagering in 2004 has helped increase purses by 20 percent, raising the bottom purse levels at the meet from $2,500 to $3,000.

There are already more than 350 horses on the grounds, with 63 entered for the opening night seven-race card. Race manager Rick Fior expects the horse population to exceed 400 in the next couple of weeks.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mike DePaulo was hoping to find some class relief for the veteran Krz Ruckus when he entered the gelding for a $100,000 claiming price at Woodbine on Friday.

But the six-furlong feature, also open to nonwinners-of-four other than maiden or claiming, has come up unusually tough, with stakes winners Ministers Wild Cat and Chris's Bad Boy also in the field of six.

Krz Ruckus has won 8 stakes, 15 races, and more than $1 million in his 40-start career, but he is now 8 years old.

Jockey Rafael Hernandez was fresh off a finger injury and stuck in the middle of the jockey standings as a field of low-end maiden claimers came down the Fairmount homestretch in the first race on May 7. With a light workload and about to lose his weight allowance, Hernandez had just released his agent, Larry Turner, in favor of recently retired ex-jockey John Woodley.

Terry Houghton rode six winners Tuesday evening to raise his total to 13 victories through six days of racing at Great Lakes Downs. Houghton, the track's leading rider last year and the winningest rider in the seven-year history of the western Michigan bullring, teamed up with trainer Gerald Bennett for four of the six wins.

Grand Kat was as impressive as ever last Saturday when he scored a 5 1/4-length win over nonwinners-of-three lifetime allowance rivals. A 5-year-old Oklahoma-bred son of Sir Cat, out of the local stakes-winning mare Grand and Graceful, Grand Kat equaled the track record for six furlongs when he went in 1:10.20, but he then suffered a career-ending injury when he pulled up after the race with a broken sesamoid. He had won his only other start of the year by an impressive eight lengths at Fonner Park.

Trainer Todd Beattie's horses ran one-two-three in the $40,700 Danzig Stakes for Pennsylvania-bred 3-year-olds last Friday night. It was the first time in the track's 32-year history that a trainer has saddled the first three finishers in a stakes.

Linglestown ($21.20), ridden by David Cora, mounted a late rally to win by 1 3/4 lengths in 1:10.46 over a sloppy track. He is now 3 for 3 at Penn National.

Jennifer Bartholomew, a Michigan native who gave up her pursuit of a veterinary career to train racehorses, won the first two races of her career Sunday, saddling longshot winners Missymissymissy ($31.60) and Double Barrell ($29.60).

Bartholomew, 24, left Michigan State before earning her degree in animal science, and briefly worked for trainer John Ward before taking out her license. She has six horses in training at River.