After chasing the likes of Ghostzapper, Midas Eyes, and Balto Star in his last four starts against graded stakes company, Unforgettable Max meets much softer competition in the $50,000 Shecky Greene, a 1 1/16-mile overnight stakes at Delaware Park.

Although he's 0 for 8 this season, the 4-year-old Unforgettable Max has posted Beyers ranging from 102 to 108 in five of his last six starts. During that span, Unforgettable Max finished third in a four-horse field, beaten 7 3/4 lengths by Ghostzapper in the Grade 2 Tom Fool.

Leaving on My Mind has figured the racing game out over his past several starts and on Saturday night will be favored to win his fourth straight stakes in the $100,000 Jean Lafitte at Delta Downs. The one-mile race for 2-year-olds is a prep for the $1 million Delta Jackpot on Dec 4.

Free Bonus puts her undefeated mark on the line Saturday night when she heads a field of seven Indiana-bred 2-year-old fillies in the $40,000 Miss Indiana Stakes, the featured race for Hoosier Park's fourth annual Ladies' Night festivities.

Accompanying the Miss Indiana is the Female Jockey Challenge, a series of six races that will match female riders from the Northeast, Midwest, Canada, and the local area.

HOUSTON - Probable champion juvenile Azoom and 2003 co-world champion Oak Tree Special are the marquee names on MBNA America Championship night Saturday at Sam Houston Race Park, where five Grade 1 races will be run.

Azoom is entered in the Grade 1, $150,000 Ford Challenge Championship, but owner Enrique Carrion and trainer Frank Cavazos have yet to make a final decision on whether Azoom will compete.

Black Bart was the horse at Turf Paradise last year. He came within a nose of winning the $150,000 Turf Paradise Breeders' Cup Handicap, losing to Irish Warrior, a horse who a couple months earlier had finished fourth won the Breeders' Cup Mile.

Black Bart followed that up with stakes wins in the Down the Isle and Blaze O'Brien. He was going so strong he was sent to Southern California, where he did himself proud winning the Khaled and Quicken Tree and finishing a solid fourth in the Grade 2 American Handicap.

There is no shortage of speed drawn to the inside in the $52,550 Princess Handicap for 2-year-old fillies at Sunland Park.

The six-furlong race, which is the first stakes of the new meet, has drawn three speedsters in Coronado Rose, Time to Divorce, and Gone Western, and a fight for the early lead is almost certainly looming.

All three have inside post positions, with Time to Divorce breaking from the rail for trainer Carlos Sedillo. The last time she was on the fence she won her debut wire to wire in a 4 1/2-furlong race at SunRay Park on Aug. 2.

EAST BOSTON, Mass. - Sports fans around New England have had good reason to root for their favorites on the road lately. And there's an opportunity to place a few legal wagers on more locals come Saturday night, when riders Tammi Piermarini and Jill Jellison head to Hoosier Park for the fourth annual Female Jockey Challenge.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Bobby Lane had been training for 10 years when he walked away from the racetrack at the end of the 1996 Woodbine meeting.

Lane's departure was not sorrowful, however. In fact, it was a decision made with the purest of motives.

"My son, Billy, was 7 years old, and I had hardly seen him his whole life," said Lane. "I figured I was only having the one child, and I wanted to be with him while he grew up."

Lane indirectly kept in touch with the horses, as he managed a teletheater in Whitby, Ontario, close to the family home in Oshawa.

PHILADELPHIA - John Servis watched the Breeders' Cup with family and friends at his Bensalem, Pa., home. He truly wanted to be at Lone Star Park with Smarty Jones. He wanted to find out just how good the colt really was.

Instead, he had to settle for running imaginary races in his mind. When the BC Classic was over, with Ghostzapper leaving a lasting impression in his bid for Horse of the Year, Servis praised the 4-year-old who did not lose in 2004 and offered his perspective on the candidacy of Smarty Jones.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Roman Ruler, the beaten favorite in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last weekend, is scheduled to undergo surgery this week to have an undescended testicle removed, trainer Bob Baffert said.

Baffert said the procedure will be conducted Sunday and that Roman Ruler will miss "a week or two" of training. "This has been bothering him for a long time," Baffert said.

The procedure will leave Roman Ruler a ridgling.