Val's Fortune, a champion Quarter Horse who was shooting for his 11th straight win last Sunday, stumbled at the start of the $50,000 Louisiana Purchase Stakes at 350 yards and was beaten a neck by Jt Tom Cat Scat.

Val's Fortune overtook leader Toast to Toltac by midstretch, but was outfinished by Jt Tom Cat Scat. Val's Fortune held second, and overall he has won 10 of 12 starts in his career. Last year, he was voted 2-year-old champion Quarter Horse.

Jt Tom Cat Scat paid $29.80. The track was sloppy for the Louisiana Purchase.

An apparent case of mistaken identity caused the morning-line favorite to be scratched from last Saturday night's Potomac Handicap at Charles Town. In a last-minute compromise, however, Nick's Delight was permitted to run in the seven-furlong stakes for West Virginia-breds, but no one was allowed to bet on him.

Nick's Delight, a 5-year-old gelding owned by Kevin Patterson and trained by Amy Albright, finished sixth of eight while racing for purse money only in the first stakes race of the season at the track.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Trainer Donnie Von Hemel could rack up the stakes wins over the first month of racing at Lone Star Park. Saturday, he plans to start probable favorite Bedanken in the $75,000 Irving Distaff. Next weekend, Cryptograph is on deck for the $75,000 Grand Prairie Turf Challenge April 24, while Where's the Ring will start next on May 8 in the $75,000 Ford Express.

Finger Lakes ushers in a new era Friday when the doors open for the 43rd race meet at the western New York track.

A 28,000-square-foot gaming area, built at the cost of $10.5 million, opened in February, and revenue from the 1,010 video lottery terminals will allow for purse increases to overnight races and stakes at the 160-day meet. The facility has been renamed Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack.

Two and a half months after the first New York racetrack opened its doors to slot-machine players, revenue from machines at the three tracks that have them is running slightly below the conservative projections of Delaware North, the company that installed the devices.

Ron Sultemeier, the president of Delaware North's Sportservice Corp., said the company believes the figures will pick up in the spring and summer, when New Yorkers are able to travel more frequently after a particularly cold and snowy winter in the Northeast.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - This is the year they have been waiting for at Lone Star Park. Since the track opened in 1997, its goal has been to host the Breeders' Cup. It will finally happen this year, during a special fall meet, when Lone Star holds the championship series on Oct. 30.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - No trainer comes into the Lone Star Park meet hotter than Steve Asmussen. He is the nation's leading trainer in wins, and in the last three weeks has collected titles at Fair Grounds, Sam Houston Race Park, and Sunland Park.

Asmussen also won with more than 40 percent of his starters at the Oaklawn meet that closed last Saturday, and, with that kind of momentum behind him, seems poised to recapture the training title at Lone Star Park.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - It was meant as a forerunner to the major 3-year-old races on dirt, but as trainers began requiring more and more time between starts for their horses, the Forerunner at Keeneland became an anachronism. Then Keeneland built a grass course in 1986, not only salvaging the Forerunner, but giving it a whole new meaning.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The superiority of California sprinters may be further validated on Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs. The late-running Publication, trained by Vladimir Cerin, will be among the favorites along with local sprinter McCann's Mojave in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Handicap at seven furlongs.

ARCADIA, Calif. - How much difference does a half-furlong make? Will Our Bobby V. tire again when he faces Phoenix Gold Cup winner Iron Halo in a six-furlong allowance sprint Thursday?

A race later, what is to prevent Electric Chair, who returns to the same allowance condition as her dominating win last time, from winning another mile turf race?