INGLEWOOD, Calif. - For the second time in the last 18 months, Sky Jack is ready to resume racing after a layoff caused by a knee injury.

In Friday's fifth race at Hollywood Park, Sky Jack returns from an eight-month break caused by an injury to his problematic right knee to start in a $62,000 optional claimer at 1 1/16 miles on turf.

In early 2002, Sky Jack rebounded from an injury to his right knee and a severe bout with colic to have a successful campaign, highlighted by a win in the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Miss Bridget Jones switched owners for the second time in her brief career when she was acquired on Monday by Vistas Stable, Marsha Naify, and Robert Geringer in advance of Saturday's $200,000 Hollywood Breeders' Cup Oaks at Hollywood Park.

Miss Bridget Jones began her career with owner-breeder Dennis Patterson, who teamed up with trainer Mike Puype for her maiden victory at Hollywood Park last December.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Saturday's $75,000-added Bay Meadows Oaks is Chapter Two of what could develop into an interesting rivalry between 3-year-old fillies Can I Call You Dad and Mac Melody.

But don't mention that to trainers Brent Sumja and Dean Pederson.

"If we both run some races against each other so be it," said Pederson, Mac Melody's trainer. "Rivalries are like the Yankees and Red Sox where they hate each other."

Said Sumja, who trains Can I Call You Dad:"I wouldn't call it a rivalry. This is where we are. Where else could we run her."

AUBURN, Wash. - There will be only five horses in Friday's featured eighth race at Emerald Downs, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds eligible to be claimed for $32,000, but there will be no shortage of speed.

CALGARY, Alberta - Whataweekend, second behind Raylene here in the May 31 Lilac, heads a field of eight 3-year-old fillies in a conditioned, optional claiming race Friday evening.

Trainer Rick Hedge nominated Whataweekend to the Penny Ridge, Sunday's closing-day feature, but opted for this race instead.

There had been speculation that Raylene, winner of two stakes races already at this meet, would challenge male rivals in the $100,000 Alberta Derby Saturday but her connections are leaning toward the $40,000 Penny Ridge.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Classic Mike, who suffered from heat stroke after his May 30 victory, will be back in action in Friday's Woodbine headliner, an $80,000 allowance/optional claimer.

Just four others were entered in the $79,400 event: Let Him Rip, Porey Spring, Defenman, and Dignified Donovan.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Graded stakes winner Dream Run is one of seven male sprinters entered in a tough allowance feature at Belmont Park Friday.

The seven-furlong race, which has a $54,000 purse, will be run as the eighth race on the twilight card and has an approximate post of 6:36 p.m.

Paul McGee trained Dream Run when he won the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Breeders' Cup Handicap last year. The horse makes his first start for trainer Michael Gorham Friday.

Turf handicappers, sharpen your pencils. Colonial Downs opens on Friday.

The 30-day meet will offer nearly nonstop turf action, unlike any other track in the U.S except the all-turf Kentucky Downs. Eight of the racetrack's 10 races on opening day will be run on the grass, and 13 of the meet's 14 stakes races, including the $500,000 Virginia Derby and the $200,000 All Along Breeders' Cup, are scheduled for the track's Secretariat course, the widest grass track in the country.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Purses for overnight races during the final 15-day stretch of the Churchill Downs spring meet are being raised 10 percent, a hike that will average an additional $31,773 per program.

Track officials attributed the raise primarily to a substantial increase in wagering on Churchill's exported simulcasts.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Because it is so early in the year, and the available number of maiden winners is relatively few, the racing secretary at any given track normally is reticent to card a June allowance race for 2-year-olds.

The reasoning is logical enough. Allowance races for 2-year-olds tend to come up with small fields - which horseplayers invariably disdain - and the races also tend to deplete the pool from which the racing secretary might want to fill a stakes.