LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Kentucky Oaks won't have the champion 2-year-old filly from last year - but that's about all it won't have.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Just when Kentucky racing fans may have thought they were familiar with all the stakes horses Bobby Frankel brought with him from California this spring - think Empire Maker, Peace Rules, You, and Sightseek - here comes the relatively unknown Lilac Queen, who quite possibly could become the Hall of Fame trainer's next graded stakes winner.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Harlan's Holiday has bounced out of his second-place finish in last month's Dubai World Cup so well that trainer Todd Pletcher is now considering pointing him to the $250,000 Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont Park June 14.

Initially, Pletcher said the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Aug. 2 was the next objective, with a possible prep race before then. Now, Pletcher seems more confident that prep could be in the Grade 2 Brooklyn, a race that may feature Breeders' Cup Classic winner Volponi.

CALGARY, Alberta - Sixthirtyjoe was a unanimous selection as Alberta's horse of the year, top Alberta-bred, and top older male at the Night of Champions awards dinner at Stampede Park on Saturday.

Bred, owned, and trained by Deanne Davies, Sixthirtyjoe won five stakes last year and earned $146,015. The gelding just missed a fourth award, losing the champion sprinter title to arch rival Tyko Tycoon.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The improving filly Cunning Play might have snuck into the $100,000 Hawthorne Handicap Friday at Hollywood Park, been part of a small field, and earned Grade 3 placing in only the third start of her comeback. Trainer Laura de Seroux admits she was tempted.

"I know the Hawthorne would be a small field, and we were back and forth between running there or a two-other-than," the trainer said. Ultimately, de Seroux entered Cunning Play in the two-other-than allowance race. Why? "Because it's the right thing to do to develop her," she said.

AUBURN, Wash. - An annual rite of spring will take place Thursday when Emerald Downs offers the state's first 2-year-old race of the year, a quarter-mile race that has drawn a field of nine, eight of them debut runners. It will be run as the second race on the card.

The race filled four days earlier than last meet's first 2-year-old race, yet it came none too soon for director of racing Grant Holcomb. Even with the nine-horse juvenile field, Holcomb was able to entice just 53 horses to enter Thursday's eight races, or an average of 6.6 horses per race.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - There are reasons to believe Oak Hall will run back to the 111 Beyer Speed Figure he earned two starts ago in Saturday's Texas Mile. Ten runners are expected for the Grade 3, $300,000 race.

Oak Hall has undergone minor throat surgery since he was beaten a head as the 3-5 favorite in the $150,000 Gulf Coast Handicap at Delta Downs March 2. The procedure could mean another big effort is in the making.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Even while he stayed in the barn Sunday, Prized Friend's stock went up. The 7-year-old Prized Friend will be entered in the $150,000 Khaled Stakes - part of Saturday's $1.3 million California Gold Rush for statebreds at Hollywood Park - and based on the company Prized Friend has been keeping, the Khaled is a turf race that he has a shot to win.

"Put it this way," trainer Bill Spawr said, "look who beat him."

ALBANY, Calif. - That was then.

"He has so much natural ability, as much as any horse I've ever had. He could be absolutely anything," trainer Brent Sumja said of Federal Highway before his nose victory in the James F. Lyttle Memorial Handicap at Santa Rosa last summer.

This is now.

Federal Highway is the probable favorite among eight runners in Thursday's feature at Bay Meadows, a one-mile turf race for $25,000 claimers.

AUBURN, Wash. - Bisbee's Prospect didn't just win Saturday's opening-day U.S. Bank Stakes at Emerald Downs. She utterly dominated the six furlong race for 3-year-old fillies, winning by nearly five lengths over pacesetter Tavy's Plan in 1:08.20. The clocking obliterated the stakes record of 1:08.80 set last year by Lasting Code, herself an exceptional filly.

It was the kind of performance that breeder and owner Jerre Paxton and trainer Bob McMeans were hoping for but scarcely dared to expect.