ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Miss Noire, third in the Sovereign Award voting for champion 2-year-old filly last year, will begin her 3-year-old campaign against older fillies and mares in Friday's Woodbine feature for $80,000 optional claimers.

ARCADIA, Calif. - There are questions surrounding the form of the three leading contenders in Friday's $100,000 Valiant Pete Handicap at Santa Anita - Echo Eddie, Full Moon Madness, and Men's Exclusive.

Echo Eddie and Men's Exclusive were second and fourth, respectively, in the $2 million Golden Shaheen Stakes in Dubai on March 23 and return 27 days later. Typically, horses that race in Dubai are given longer rest periods before resuming racing.

AUBURN, Wash. - Emerald Downs will open its 2002 season on Friday with a nine-race card headed by the $25,000 Ropersandwranglers Stakes for older filly and mare sprinters.

Friday's program, which begins with the regular weekday first post time of 6 p.m., will be the first of 91 days of live racing at a meeting that will stretch through Sept. 16. First post for weekend cards will be 1 p.m., and the gates will open 30 minutes before the first simulcast race each day.

CALGARY, Alberta - T J Quigley, winner of his first two outings here at Stampede Park last spring, heads a field of nine older runners in Friday's seventh race.

An 8-year-old gelding, T J Quigley also registered an upset over Timely Ruckus in the 1999 Stampede Park Sprint Championship and has a class edge in this six-furlong dash for $15,000 claimers.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A lot of water has passed under the bridge since Pat Byrne last won the Lexington Stakes. It was in 1996 that Byrne, after 10 years of training in relative obscurity, first began making national headlines when City by Night won the Lexington.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Did trainer Dennis Hopkins steal a race last time? Or did Tempting, who will make the second start of her career in Friday's co-feature at Bay Meadows, surprise him?

"It's a combination of both," Hopkins said of Tempting's seven-length victory in her racing debut at age 4 in a 5 1/2-furlong sprint for $12,500 maidens on April 7.

"The filly had a few problems in the past, and we weren't sure exactly what she would do. It turned out she's as good as we thought."

What do you get when you cross a horse beaten nearly 42 lengths in his first two starts of the year with another improbable longshot ridden by a jockey with a 1-for-66 record?

In the case of Monday night's second race at Evangeline Downs, the answer is one humongous exacta payoff.

Home Stead, a 4-year-old gelding who hadn't been competitive since winning his maiden 13 months ago, won the 5 1/2-furlong race for $3,000 claimers and paid $93.60.

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - Last July, when Fairmount was forced to cut back to three racing days per week, leading rider Tommy Pompell decided to pack his tack and look for better opportunities elsewhere.

First Pompell went to Ellis Park, where he struggled to gain business. But at the Hoosier Park meet, which opened in September, he finished sixth in the standings with 42 wins.

Horses returning for the first time after being claimed are doing well at Mountaineer Park.

Last Friday, Harold Gensler saddled Storm the Net ($17.40), taken for $15,000 when he finished fourth on March 24, to win for twice that price.

In the second part of Monday's early double, Forbetterorworse, claimed at the bottom by trainer Ludwig Lamm, fired when in for the same $4,000 claiming price as the 6-5 favorite.

There are no sure things in horse racing, but when trainer John McCaslin ships a horse from Philadelphia Park to Penn National, an across-the-board wager is almost as safe as money in a bank.

Over the past two months, McCaslin has compiled a sensational record with horses he has sent to the Grantville, Pa., oval from his home base at Philadelphia Park.

McCaslin, who was stabled at Penn National more than 20 years ago, has sent out five winners, five seconds, and three third-place finishers from the 16 starters he has run at Penn.