Kris Prather is going to celebrate New Year's Eve her way.

Prather, the apprentice rider who posted spectacular numbers last winter at Turfway Park before being injured, is scheduled to return to action at the Florence, Ky., track, on Dec. 31.

Prather has been sidelined since August to allow her surgically repaired shoulder to heal properly. The layoff was the second lengthy one of the year for Prather, who also was inactive for some 2 1/2 months after injuring her knees in a starting-gate accident at Turfway on March 17.

MIAMI - Trainer Christophe Clement has won Calder's La Prevoyante Handicap four times and the W.L. McKnight Handicap once. He will attempt to add to those totals on next weekend's Grand Slam II program. The trainer will send out Summer Solstice and perhaps stablemate Step With Style in the Grade 2 La Prevoyante and Honor Glide in the Grade 2 McKnight.

NEW ORLEANS - Trainer Todd Pletcher finally broke through with a win here Thursday, when Getadderit scored by a length in a first-level turf allowance race. It was a long time coming. When Thursday's action ended, Pletcher's record at Fair Grounds was 18-1-5-0, but at least it included a win.

"Nobody likes to start off like that," said George Weaver, Pletcher's longtime assistant who is supervising the Fair Grounds string. "But you can't get all worked up about things and start second-guessing. You just have to stick with your plan."

PORTLAND, Ore. - Rider Karen Knapp waited six years to return to the saddle, which she did shortly after this meeting began on Oct. 2. But by the time last Saturday's Oregon-bred Day program rolled around, she was almost ready to quit.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - After spending the summer and fall beating allowance horses, Summer Colony makes her first foray into stakes competition in Saturday's $100,000 Ladies Handicap at Aqueduct.

The dilemma for handicappers is determining whether Summer Colony was as good as she looked winning four straight races or was she simply beating substandard competition?

"This is one way of finding out," Seth Gregory, the assistant to trainer Mark Hennig, said. "I think she's a graded stakes-caliber filly."

PORTLAND, Ore. - Trainer Lin Melton holds a strong hand in the $37,706 Far West Futurity Finals at Portland Meadows on Saturday, when he saddles the winners of two of the three trial races, which were run on Dec. 9.

Melton will send out Yak Ity Yak Go, who won the first trial by 1 1/2 lengths in 20.78 for the 400 yards, and Fancy a Shag, who scored by a half-length in 20.74 in the third trial.

NEW ORLEANS - All trainer Rickey Harris wanted was for Fan Club's Mister not to draw an outside post in Saturday's $100,000 Woodchopper Handicap. Ouch. Saddled with the outside gate in a 14-horse field, Fan Club's Mister, the 120-pound highweight, will need every bit of his tactical speed - and much racing luck - to overcome a terrible draw.

MIAMI - Nobody would have loved the way the starting lineup for Saturday's $100,000 Pete Axthelm Stakes shapes up more than Axthelm himself. It is a full and evenly matched field of 12 3-year-old colts and geldings going 7 1/2 furlongs on the grass, with the potential for the tote board lighting up like a Christmas tree when the race is official.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - Trainer John Kimmel has a way with the Ladies.

On Saturday, when Aqueduct hosts the 131st Ladies Handicap - the oldest stakes in the country run exclusively for fillies and mares - Kimmel will seek his fourth consecutive victory in the race. In 1998, he won it with Unbridled Hope. The last two years, he won it with Strolling Belle, who seeks a three-peat on Saturday.

NEW ORLEANS - More than seven months after finishing ninth in the Kentucky Derby, during which he suffered an injury, Fifty Stars is ready to begin in earnest his preparations for a 2002 racing campaign. Fifty Stars is scheduled to ship into trainer Steve Asmussen's barn on Sunday and is likely to train over the Fair Grounds racetrack Monday. Asmussen said if Fifty Stars's comeback progresses well, he will point the colt to the New Orleans Handicap in March.