It is appropriate that Nelson Bunker Hunt will be inducted into the Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame within a week of Lone Star Park hosting the Breeders' Cup. Hunt was instrumental in bringing the idea of a championship series to life, said John R. Gaines, who founded the Breeders' Cup. The championships will be renewed for the 21st time on Oct. 30.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Kate Winslet, a filly named for the Academy Award-winning actress and the star of the box-office hit Titanic, will run in the $150,000 Ticonderoga Handicap on the New York Showcase Day card.

Kate Winslet, who was bought three weeks ago by Team Valor and partners, was scheduled to arrive from France on Wednesday evening. She makes her first start for trainer Rick Violette Jr. in the Ticonderoga, a 1 1/8-mile grass race for fillies and mares.

The Ticonderoga is one of seven stakes, worth a total of $1 million, for New York-breds on Showcase Day.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Go west, young filly.

Hawthorne Race Course will likely be the next destination for Toll Taker following her victory in the Grade 3 Astarita Stakes last Sunday at Belmont Park.

Trainer Tim Hills has a number of options for the 2-year-old, who is coming off her third straight dominant sprint win. The $100,000 Showtime Deb Stakes for Illinois-breds on Nov. 13 is the front-runner.

"It's pretty definite we'll go for that, if she's still training well," said Hills. "For $100,000, it's such a slam dunk."

ARCADIA, Calif. - Wednesday was not a fun morning at Santa Anita, particularly for the trainers with horses pointing for the Breeders' Cup at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30.

Overnight rain left the main track looking like chocolate mousse. The training track was inaccessible because an underground tunnel was flooded, and a downed tree knocked out power to the barn area around 4 a.m.

"It was a mess," said trainer Jim Cassidy, who has two hopefuls for the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf - Katdogawn and Moscow Burning.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Woke Up Dreamin needed a year off after losing a grueling match race at Del Mar in Sept. 2003. His form at the Oak Tree meeting this fall has made up for the absence.

tries for his second allowance win of the meeting Friday, when he faces six rivals over six furlongs.

Trainer Bob Baffert says Woke Up Dreamin will stay in conventional races and will not appear in any match races.

In the match race, over 1 1/16 miles, Woke Up Dreamin led by 2 1/2 lengths at the eighth pole under Julie Krone but lost by a nose to Chester's Choice.

CHICAGO - Christine Janks currently is traveling somewhere in Africa, but that doesn't mean a horse she trains can't win the Friday feature in Stickney, Ill.

The Janks barn has entered Golden Trevally in Hawthorne's featured seventh race, a fourth-level allowance with a $50,000 claiming option. The race is carded at two turns on grass, but thunderstorms are forecast for Friday afternoon. In fact, grass racing has been canceled here the last two Fridays.

MIAMI - Trainer Bill Perry makes his summer home in New Jersey, and as a result Saturday's $400,000 In Reality Stakes at Calder was never under consideration for his lightly raced 2-year-old Anthony J. But that changed abruptly when Anthony J. overcame trouble and exploded to win a six-furlong maiden race at Monmouth Park on Sept. 25.

All of a sudden, Perry found himself with an In Reality contender and his first starter in a Florida Stallion Stakes race.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Nine 3-year-old fillies, many of whom seem more at home on the turf, meet in Friday's Bay Meadows feature, a $40,000 optional claimer at 1 1/16 miles on the main track.

Seven of the nine entrants come out of grass races, and Tavern on Rush and Winter Runner come off wins on turf. Despite the switch in surface, they may be the ones to beat.

PORTLAND, Ore. - It will be three and out for Slewicide Cruise.

After Slewicide Cruise scored his third straight impressive victory in Saturday's $10,000 Inaugural Handicap at Portland Meadows, trainer Robbie Baze announced that the 4-year-old colt will be turned out until next spring.

"It's hard to stop on them when they are as sharp as he is now, but we want to have a nice horse for next year," said Baze. "We have high hopes for him next year."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Stakes winner Velvet Snow will be favored in Friday's featured second race at Woodbine, a $62,500 optional claimer scheduled for a mile on the grass.

Velvet Snow, one of two 3-year-olds in the six-horse field of fillies and mares, captured the 6 1/2-furlong Ontario Damsel Stakes in her second grass start in July. She subsequently finished fourth against older opposition in the Grade 3 Royal North Handicap, a six-furlong dash won by the powerful Hour of Justice.