LEXINGTON, Ky. - Rafael Bejarano has accomplished a whole lot since he last rode at Keeneland, where he won with just 7 of 86 mounts at the spring meet in April.

Bejarano notched the first Grade 1 win of his career, the Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs on June 12. He rode in his first Triple Crown race, the Preakness on May 15. He won the

riding title at the Churchill spring meet, unseating perennial champion Pat Day. He won another riding title at Ellis Park, another at Turfway Park, and set a record at Kentucky Downs for winners in a meet.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Saintly Persuasion had a right to get tired when she finished third in the Piedra Foundation Handicap at Del Mar on Sept. 2. The race marked her first start in more than 10 months, and she led through a decent pace before fading in the final sixteenth.

The experience from that race could lead to a win for Saintly Persuasion in a $48,000 allowance race at Santa Anita on Friday. Run as the seventh race on an eighth-race program, the allowance is run over 1 1/16 miles. First post is 2:30 p.m. Pacific.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Balto Star, a Grade 1 turf stakes winner, shifts back to the main track Friday night for the Grade 2, $500,000 Meadowlands Breeders' Cup Stakes.

The 1 1/8-mile Cup, The Meadowlands's signature event, drew eight runners and is the highlight event of the six-week meet. It tops an 11-race card that gets under way at 7:30 p.m.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Financingavailable, who gave favored Blonde Executive a run for her money in the La Prevoyante Stakes, will be strongly backed in Friday's eighth race at Woodbine.

The seven-furlong turf allowance for Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies drew 16 horses, 14 of whom made it into the body of the race.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Sean Greely, the Monmouth and Meadowlands racing secretary from 2000-2003 and also a former racing secretary at Hialeah, has been appointed the racing secretary at Golden Gate Fields for its meet, which begins next month.

Greely's first day on the job was Monday, and he's been busy introducing himself to northern California horsemen.

Greely, 41, has been involved in racing his entire life. He is the son of longtime racing official and Keeneland president William Greely and the brother of Kevin Greely, the current racing secretary in Dubai.

Jockey Larry Taylor already won one sprint stakes race over the weekend at Lone Star Park, and he will be hunting bigger game Friday when he travels to Keeneland to ride Gold Storm in the Grade 3, $250,000 Phoenix Breeders' Cup. The race is one of the most important in Taylor's career, because with a good effort, Gold Storm will be pointed for the $1 million Breeders' Cup Sprint at the horse's home track of Lone Star Park.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Don Chatlos Jr. is almost 40, but he once wore a Chicago Bears jersey on a day his colt Singletary won at Santa Anita. A football jersey is something a college student might wear, but Chatlos decided to wear the jersey in honor of his colt and the colt's namesake, Mike Singletary, the former Chicago Bears linebacker who played in Chatlos's hometown.

Saturday, the Bears jersey will stay in the closet. Chatlos promises to be a sharp dresser when Singletary starts in the $250,000 Oak Tree Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Buckland Manor returned from a layoff this month without an obvious race for his comeback. Having few options, owners Trudy McCaffery and John Toffan have chosen to supplement Buckland Manor to Saturday's $250,000 Oak Tree Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita, a race that serves as a Breeders' Cup Mile prep for some starters.

Trainer Paco Gonzalez is not looking that far down the road - at least not yet.

"He would have to run very big," Gonzalez said of the Oak Tree Mile. "I've got no other place to run."

CHICAGO - The human connections of Herculated just don't see the point of a "show the world" approach, not right now at least. The time is not ripe to tackle Grade 1 horses in this weekend's Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland, so Herculated is coming back to Chicago instead, and he probably will be favored Saturday at Hawthorne in the $150,000 Carey Memorial Handicap.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Alphabet Soup won the Breeders' Cup Classic at age 5. So did Black Tie Affair. Perhaps that explains why Lentil, a daughter of Alphabet Soup out of a Black Tie Affair mare, has gotten so good in this, her 5-year-old year.

Lentil's efforts in her last two races - as well as the lack of other speed in the race - make her the one to catch and beat in Friday's $60,000 Gaviola Stakes at Belmont Park. The one-mile Gaviola, for fillies and mares who have not won a stakes race in 2003-04, drew 13, though only 12 will be permitted to run.