LAFAYETTE, La. - When the connections of 25-time winner Hallowed Dreams chose the Valid Expectations Stakes at Lone Star last Monday for her comeback after a 3 1/2-month layoff a potentially small field for Saturday night's Tellike Handicap swelled considerably. The $30,000, six-furlong sprint lured a dozen fillies and mares through the entry box on Thursday.

As 2-year-olds last season, Volley Ball and Oswayo split a pair of close decisions in stakes races at Philadelphia Park.

The two rivals renew their acquaintance in Saturday's $50,000 Peppy Addy, the first of 13 stakes for Pennsylvania-breds this season at the Bensalem, Pa., track.

MIAMI - Saturday's $75,000 Simply Majestic Stakes will be Lord Juban's to lose, when he starts as the overwhelming favorite to defeat 10 rivals going 1 1/16 miles on the grass. The Simply Majestic is the sixth of 12 live races on Saturday's card at Calder Race Course.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - While most of his Canadian-bred contemporaries have been slugging it out in the local preps for the June 23 Queen's Plate, Classic Case has taken a different approach.

Classic Case has raced twice in 2002, winning the March 23 Budweiser Challenger over one mile on turf at Tampa Bay and then finishing sixth in Churchill's Grade 3 Crown Royal American Turf over 1 1/16 miles May 3.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - A competitive field of 10 has been entered for Saturday's featured seventh race at Assiniboia Downs, an allowance/optional claiming event at six furlongs.

Silver Trooper was disqualified from first and placed sixth for causing interference away from the gate in his seasonal bow May 18 while meeting several of the rivals he will face again here.

Trained by Darla Singh and ridden by Rohan Singh, Silver Trooper probably will battle with Amersham for the early lead.

FORT ERIE, Ontario - Each winter Fort Erie-based trainer Nick Gonzalez shops for horses in Florida. Besides coming back to Canada with two horses this year he also landed a new client, Ken Hoffman. As a result, the Gonzalez barn has taken off to a fast start this year.

Gonzalez captured an optional claiming race on Woodbine's turf course Wednesday with Amazon River, owned by Hoffman. For Gonzalez, it was his 11th score of the year. Four of those were for Hoffman, a 69-year-old owner-trainer who lives in Ocala, Fla.

ALTOONA, Iowa - Miner's Prize, fresh off a victory in the Bosselman-Gus Fonner Handicap at Fonner Park, is the 120-pound highweight in Saturday's $100,000 Precisionist Handicap at Prairie Meadows.

The Precisionist serves as a prep for Prairie Meadows's premier race, the Grade 3, $300,000 Cornhusker Handicap on July 6.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - War Emblem, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner who next Saturday will bid to become the first Triple Crown winner in 24 years, gave fair warning that he may have saved his best for last when he breezed five furlongs in 1:00.60 over a fast track Wednesday at Churchill Downs.

Perhaps most impressive was the way he galloped out past the wire. Churchill clockers caught him going another furlong in 13 seconds, while trainer Bob Baffert clocked him going an extra quarter-mile in 26 seconds.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Paulo Lobo's introduction to most American racing fans came at the most unlikely time at an unexpected venue.

He did not quietly emerge with a string of good horses at his new base in Southern California. Instead, he emerged at one of the country's biggest races - the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 3.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The only good reason to wager against Super High on Friday at Hollywood Park is depressed odds. The 3-year-old filly will start at even money or less, and should not lose the $100,000 California Sires Stakes.

"It's a pretty good spot for the purse, isn't it?" said trainer Carla Gaines. In fact, the filly division of the Cal Sires came up even weaker than the Cal Sires colt division scheduled for Thursday. Friday, Super High faces two maidens, two who won maiden-claiming races, and a sprinter who won a maiden race only six days earlier.