Excessivepleasure will be a heavy favorite to win Sunday's Grade 3, $150,000 Oklahoma Derby, one of 16 stakes to be run this weekend in Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana.

Sam Houston Race Park in Houston will card nine stakes worth $650,000 on Saturday night during its annual Texas Champions Day program, while four statebred stakes worth $275,000 will be decided on Friday and Saturday night at Delta Downs in Vinton, La.

Remington Park will card two other stakes in addition to the Oklahoma Derby, which is the richest race of the meet.

As many as 13 horses are expected to be entered Wednesday when post positions are drawn for Saturday's Grade 1, $300,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park.

Shake You Down, a three-time graded-stakes winner this year and the third-place finisher in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, is expected to be a strong favorite in the six-furlong Dash. Shake You Down has won 6 of 11 starts this year, including the Bold Ruler, True North, and Smile Sprint handicaps. He was claimed earlier this year by trainer Scott Lake for $65,000.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Breeders' Cup Day marked a turning point in the recent fortunes of Dale Romans and Steve Asmussen, the two favorites to win the training title coming into the 2003 Churchill Downs fall meet.

Romans, who had won one race at the Keeneland meet, sent out longshot M B Sea to win the Fayette Stakes on Oct. 25, closing day at Keeneland, which overlapped with the Breeders' Cup program at Santa Anita. Meanwhile, none of the three horses that Asmussen ran in the Breeders' Cup, including favored Cuvee in the Juvenile, finished in the money.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Bornwithit is scheduled to be shipped Wednesday to trainer Bob Baffert in California after having been sold by Glenn Montgomery for an undisclosed amount. Montgomery had claimed Bornwithit after he won a $30,000 maiden claiming race by 24 1/2 lengths an earned an 85 Beyer Figure Oct. 11 at Keeneland.

CHICAGO - If Summer Mis is named Illinois horse of the year it will be on the merits of what she already has accomplished this season, since Summer Mis is headed to South Carolina for the winter and won't race until next year, according to her trainer, Tony Mitchell.

Louisiana Downs closed out its first meet under the ownership of Harrah's Entertainment on Sunday with a double-digit increase in handle. During the 80-day meet, the track handled $2,499,708 a day on its races, up 11.8 percent over the corresponding meet in 2002.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Rockin on Ice has been on a roll throughout the second half of the Woodbine meeting, and he should be favored in Wednesday's nominal feature, a $32,000 claimer for fillies and mares.

Rockin on Ice was claimed by owner Johnny Martellacci and trainer Abraham Katryan for just $18,000 on Sept. 25 from her second straight 5 1/2-length score in conditioned claiming company. She defeated $32,000 opposition in her first start off the claim, and then finished third in a tough $40,000 claimer won by a sharp invader from Manitoba.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Progeny of the second-year sire Tomorrows Cat took the top two spots in both $125,000 New York Stallion Stakes events for juveniles Sunday at Aqueduct.

Meanwhile, grass specialists Quantum Merit and Ma Femme cruised to easy scores in a pair of $100,000 Stallion Stakes races for 3-year-olds and up, run over soft turf.

ANDERSON, Ind. - Ellens Lucky Star won a stretch duel to nail down her third consecutive win of the meet in the $38,300 Richmond Stakes for Indiana-bred and -sired fillies and mares.

Ellens Lucky Star moved to the front on the far turn of the 1 1/16-mile race, then fought off a challenge by One Eyed Jackie in the stretch to win by 1 1/2 lengths in 1:47.68 over a fast track. Ellens Lucky Star paid $2.80.

* Dakota Diamond rallied from off the pace for a $31.80 upset in the $39,150 Gus Grissom for males at 1 1/16 miles.

White Mountain Boy ($5.20) was awarded the victory in the $60,000 Rollicking Stakes when first-place finisher Hands On was disqualified for drifting in during the stretch run.

It was the third win on the program for leading owner Michael Gill and was Gill's fifth stakes victory of the year in Maryland. Gill has won 123 races at Laurel and Pimlico, 98 ahead of his closest competitor.