INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Doug O'Neill won his first training title at the Fairplex Park meeting earlier this year.

"I won a belt buckle I haven't seen," he said. "I was thinking of putting it on a necklace, like Eminem. Well, maybe not."

At least, O'Neill is a better trainer than a fashion consultant.

Through Thursday, he was leading the trainer standings at the Hollywood Park fall meeting, with 10 wins, three more than Bobby Frankel. O'Neill had a four-race lead on the red-hot Leonard Duncan, who was tied with Bob Baffert and A.C. Avila for third.

HOUSTON - With two of the six fillies and mares entered expected to scratch from Saturday's $275,000 Great State Challenge Distaff at Sam Houston Race Park, Take Charge Lady was expected to have only four opponents.

The connections of Hunka Hunka Lori Z had tried since Wednesday to make travel arrangements from her Laurel Park base in Maryland, but on Friday morning said they were almost certain the filly would be scratched.

"We tried everything," said Charles Reed, who co-owns Hunka Hunka Lori Z with Mike Zanella.

SPOKANE, Wash. - Eric Nelson, who has been granted a license - but not dates - to conduct racing at Playfair next year, has asked eastern Washington horsemen to sign proxies giving their bargaining rights to Bob Johnston, president of Inland Empire Horsemen's Association.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Beautiful America has done enough this year to earn herself the New York-bred juvenile filly championship, but if voters have any doubts, they will get another chance to see her in action in Sunday's $75,000-added East View at Aqueduct.

Beautiful America is 4 for 5 lifetime, including wins in her last three starts, and is one of six 2-year-old fillies in the 1 1/16-mile East View, for New York-breds.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Madame Pietra has essentially become her own boss this year.

Without being asked to meet specific workout times or follow a certain style in races, the 5-year-old Madame Pietra has won two sprint stakes this year for owner Carl Grether and trainer Howard Zucker.

NEW ORLEANS - With just a $75,000 purse, Sunday's Tenacious Handicap may not be a very lucrative race, but it has just about everything else. There are wounded warriors like Fifty Stars and Valhol trying to come back from injuries; a turf horse, Freefourinternet, trying to transfer his form to dirt; and Connected and Rock Slide, who have flashed brilliance but never quite delivered it.

ALBANY, Calif. - It didn't take Rosario Aguilar long to pick up her first official win as a trainer.

Gold Crusader, only the third horse Aguilar started, delivered her first victory in Wednesday's eighth race at Golden Gate Fields. The 5-year-old Gold Crusader came from last to win a $6,250 claimer at one mile by three lengths.

Aguilar, 51, a native of Guatemala, has been around the racetrack for 10 years and has assisted in the training of some horses that she owns. She took her trainer's test in November and passed it.

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - Saturday's $125,000-added Johnie L. Jamison Stakes, for New Mexico-bred 3-year-olds and up at 6 1/2 furlongs, is a new race on the Sunland calendar, named for a horseman who trained on this circuit for more than 40 years and died during the summer.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Xtra Heat begins a new era when she runs in Saturday's $75,000-added Garland of Roses at Aqueduct, and she also reacquaints herself with an old friend.

The sprinting sensation will carry the silks of her new owner, S. David Plummer, in the Garland of Roses. Plummer's ClassicStar privately purchased the 4-year-old Xtra Heat last month in Kentucky for $1.5 million after she failed to reach her reserve price at Fasig-Tipton's November sale.

Xtra Heat was sold after finishing sixth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Arlington Park on Oct. 26.

MIAMI - George Weaver spent 11 years as assistant to trainers D. Wayne Lukas and Todd Pletcher. And with that background, it's no wonder it took Weaver only three tries after striking out on his own to saddle his first winner, First Spear, in Thursday's fifth race at Calder.

"It's always good to get the first one out of the way," said Weaver. "It takes a lot of pressure off."