The calendar changes, but sometimes the horses remain the same. Last April 25 in a high-class optional-claiming race at Hawthorne, trainer Christine Janks sent out the two fastest horses in her barn, Fifteen Rounds and Manitowish. Fifteen Rounds last ran in a Grade 3 stakes, and was assumed to be the superior horse, but he started slowly and ran progressively worse that day, finishing ninth. As Fifteen Rounds faded, Manitowish crept up the rail and won by a neck. His win price would have been boxcars, had the pair not been coupled for wagering purposes.

Highweight Cat Singer leads a full field of 12 Ohio-breds in Saturday's $40,000 Edward Babst Memorial at Beulah Park.

Cat Singer won 2 of his 9 starts last year, most of which came against tougher open company at tracks such as the Fair Grounds and Keeneland.

Idle since finishing third in a $100,000 optional claiming event at Churchill Downs Nov. 25, Cat Singer returns to the races in the six-furlong Babst off a solid string of workouts for trainer David Carroll, including a 58.40 bullet five-furlong move at Fair Grounds last month.

Cork the Barber and The Straw Man, one-two in the Baxter Stakes on March 19, meet again Saturday in the colts and geldings division of the $30,000-added Fonner Park Special Stakes for Nebraska-bred 3-year-olds.

Cork the Barber rallied to win the Baxter, at 6 1/2 furlongs, by two lengths. The Straw Man was in close attendance to the pace that day and opened up by two lengths entering the lane. The duo can be expected to put on the same sort of performance Saturday among a full field of 10.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Chris's Bad Boy, Woodbine's six-furlong track-record holder, will try to get a new meeting off to a fast start in Saturday's outstanding opening-day feature, the $138,875 Jacques Cartier Stakes.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - When trainer Danny Vella announced last fall that he was going public, he expected that Stronach Stable would remain a client.

Vella started training for owner Frank Stronach at the end of 1991. After that stint, he spent most of five years working at Stronach's Adena Springs South farm in Florida and two years ago returned to Woodbine to train for Stronach.

But, as the 2005 season dawns, Vella finds that his training operation has gone even more public than he planned. Of the 23 horses under his shed row here, not a single one is owned by Stronach.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine Entertainment Group officials are hoping that a $400 payment to horses finishing sixth or worse will help create larger field sizes at Woodbine this year.

Woodbine has been plagued with small fields in recent years, a trend that ended last September after the Fort Erie meeting concluded prematurely because of extensive track renovations. Woodbine carded numerous low-level claiming events throughout the fall, which resulted in larger fields and a surplus in the purse account.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Mauk Four took the initiative from the start and never looked back for a two and a half length win over Clays Awesome in the Grade 3, $100,000 at Oaklawn Park on Wednesday.

The race was part of the track's annual Racing Festival of the South, when at least one stakes a day is decided over the final six days of the Oaklawn meet, which ends on Saturday.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The trip that Artie Schiller endured last fall as the lukewarm favorite in the Breeders' Cup Mile went from the ridiculous to the sublime. Steadied, checked, blocked, and otherwise prevented from completing so much as a meaningful step, the colt finished 12th after jockey Richard Migliore "pretty much gave up" when he dropped hopelessly out of contention down the stretch, said trainer Jimmy Jerkens.

"He had nowhere to go, to say the least," said Jerkens.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Madcap Escapade gave a jaw-dropping performance Wednesday at Keeneland, getting the opening half-mile of the $200,000 in 43.75 seconds and going on to an easy victory in the seven-furlong stakes.

Over a sloppy track, Madcap Escapade ran her career record to 6 for 7, prevailing by 4 3/4 lengths over My Trusty Cat in a field of seven fillies and mares. Jerry Bailey was aboard.

"I've always said she's got a high cruising speed, but that's an understatement," said Bailey.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Whether he wanted to or not, trainer Bobby Frankel probably is going to find out something new about his latest stable star, High Limit.

"We're going to learn whether he can sit off other horses or not," Frankel said minutes after High Limit was assigned post 5 for the .