PORTLAND, Ore. - A full field of 12 older runners will contest Friday?s $10,000 Thanksgiving Handicap at Portland Meadows.

ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Doug O'Neill had one of the stars of last year's Golden Gate Fields meet with Skipaslew, who went from the claiming ranks to the Triple Crown trail.

The Southern California-based O'Neill sends Skipaslew back to Golden Gate Fields for Friday's $75,000-added Forty-Niner Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile race with a field of nine.

was an unknown when he won the Gold Rush here last year. He then won the Grade 3 Golden Gate Derby before running seventh at 2-1 in the Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - An extremely competitive running of Friday's Grade 3 Miesque Stakes became twice as good on Wednesday morning. Sixteen 2-year-old fillies were entered in the one-mile grass race, so Hollywood Park racing secretary Martin Panza divided the race into a pair of eight-horse fields with $75,000 purses.

Fourteen European newcomers are expected to make their American debuts at the Autumn Turf Festival at Hollywood Park this weekend, eight starting for the first time for their new American trainers. Six are listed as trained by European trainers, and five of those will be turned over to American trainers after the Festival. The one scheduled for a return trans-Atlantic trip is Mingun, who will go back to Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle yard after his run in the Citation Handicap.

Friday

Trainer Mike Biehler is 1 for 1 in graded stakes after sending out Wally's Choice to a 33-1 upset in the Grade 3, $167,000 Oklahoma Derby on Sunday. The win was Biehler's seventh in a stakes in 2004 and helped lift him to his best year in stable earnings.

Wally's Choice has won four stakes this year and closed from last to first in the Oklahoma Derby.

"He came back good," said Biehler. "We had planned on turning him out after that race, but I'm not sure what we'll do right now. The owners were out of the country, and I hadn't talked to them yet."

Post could be the deciding factor Friday night when front-runners Mr. Excellent and Blazing Exploit start as the top two choices in the $40,000 Delta Beau for 2-year-olds at Delta Downs in Vinton, La.

Mr. Excellent will break from post 6, two spots outside of Blazing Exploit. The draw could give Mr. Excellent's rider, Carlos Gonzalez, options, and that's a good thing for the colt, who is attempting to win his second straight stakes and his fourth race in five career starts.

Wind Twister has whirled through her conditions and will be looking for her fourth straight victory Friday when she takes on Malika's Gold in the $40,000 E.L. Gaylord Memorial at Remington Park in Oklahoma City. The 6 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies drew 12 starters.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Rockport Harbor may have accomplished more by this point than Smarty Jones did, but trainer John Servis said Rockport Harbor, an unbeaten 2-year-old, still has some lessons to learn before reaching the heights of his dual-classic winner.

CHICAGO - Call Restless Mon a nontraditional student. He is older by years than most of his peers, but his education has just begun.

makes the second start of his career Friday at Hawthorne, about a month before he turns 5. His race, the eighth, is one of three entry-level allowances on Hawthorne's 10-race program. All three are routes, but the other two are for 2-year-olds, many of whom are far more seasoned than Restless Mon.

PORTLAND, Ore. - There was a steady diet of five-furlong races at Portland Meadows on Saturday and Monday, but at least there were full slates. Last Friday night, only three races were run.

The jockeys declined to ride after last Friday's third race, citing unsafe track conditions. To be more specific, the riders felt the surface was uneven. It got to be uneven, by most accounts, because of a procedure that was performed earlier in the week.