The cream of the Indiana-bred crop will come together for the $40,000 Brickyard Stakes at six furlongs.

Michael Nance will send out the coupled entry of Donnies Pick and Mr. Mink as a formidable one-two punch in the 10-horse field. Donnies Pick is a stalker who has only missed the board once in his 14 starts at Hoosier Park, including last year's runner-up finish in the Brickyard behind If I Were You. Donnies Pick has yet to win this year, but should be sitting just off a hot pace that includes his stablemate, Mr. Mink.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Bobby Frankel has one of the main contenders in Sunday's $75,000-added Miss Grillo in Melhor Ainda, and he also has a good chance of winning the other stakes on the closing-day card at Belmont Park - the $75,000-added Pilgrim - with Kfar Daniel.

Kfar Daniel is among eight 2-year-old males entered in the 1 1/8-mile race on the inner turf.

Kfar Daniel began his career in France at Maisons-Laffitte, where he finished third after setting the pace and tiring in his debut.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Aqueduct's Grade 1, $750,000 Wood Memorial, a major prep for the Kentucky Derby, has been moved to a week earlier on the stakes scheduled for 2005.

Since 1994, the Wood Memorial has been run three weeks before the Kentucky Derby. Next year, the 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds will be run four weeks before the Derby, on April 9.

Mike Lakow, the New York Racing Association's handicapper and racing secretary, said the move was made to accommodate horsemen pointing horses to the Triple Crown.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Stakes careers could be lurking in the future for Paz Ciudadana and Katana, the first two finishers in a $49,200 optional claimer at Santa Anita on Thursday.

The sometimes ornery Paz Ciudadana rallied to finish a neck in front of New Zealand newcomer Katana, who was a length in front of the stakes-placed Sister Girl Blues. The race felt more like a minor stakes than an allowance.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Cris Vienna has posed in the winner's circle many times.

But Wednesday's picture in the Bay Meadows winner's circle with Royal Emerald was different. This time, instead of posing alongside his father, trainer Darrell Vienna, he posed as the winning trainer after Royal Emerald ($26.40) scored a wire-to-wire victory.

Vienna, who worked "off and on" for five years for his father, got his trainer's license at Del Mar this summer. Royal Emerald was the seventh horse he started on his own.

MIAMI - Aclassysassylassy has dominated the opening two legs of the filly division of the Florida Stallion Stakes, but if history is any indication, it might pay to bet against as a short-priced favorite in Saturday's $400,000 My Dear Girl Stakes, the final leg of the Stallion Stakes series.

ELMONT, N.Y. - West Virginia and Chowder's First are 3-year-olds who look like they have an edge on their older rivals in Saturday's $250,000 Empire Classic on New York Showcase Day at Belmont Park.

The Empire Classic is one of seven stakes for statebreds on New York Showcase Day card.

A full field of 14, plus an also eligible, entered the 1 1/8-mile Empire Classic. The Empire Classic is the finale on a 10-race program and the final leg of a $400,000 guaranteed pick four.

In the last 10 runnings of the Empire Classic, four 3-year-olds have won.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A trainer literally spends weeks plotting and working and worrying about the next race for a horse. Then all that time and energy gets wasted in a matter of seconds when the horse rears up in the gate, giving its opponents a lead that proves insurmountable.

David Carroll hates when that happens.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Puerto Banus was thrown into a tough field earlier this month when he ended a six-month layoff with a sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Handicap.

Bettors saw it coming, sending him off at 21-1 in a field that included Breeders' Cup Turf hopefuls Star Over the Bay and Sarafan.

There is no such competition for in Saturday's $100,000 Carleton Burke Handicap at Santa Anita. The Burke is run over 1 1/2 miles on turf, over a course and at a distance which Puerto Banus has proven to like this year.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Divisional honors could be on the line Saturday at Woodbine, when Simply Lovely squares off with Dancehall Deelites in the $250,000 Princess Elizabeth Stakes.

Simply Lovely, a two-time stakes winner trained by Bob Tiller, can gain a foothold on the 2-year-old filly Sovereign Award with a victory in the 1 1/16-mile event.

"She's the boss of the Canadian-bred fillies right now," said Tiller, who won the 1999 Princess Elizabeth with Talk Back.