GROVE CITY, Ohio - Mercer's Launch will be looking to collect her second career stakes victory when she heads a field of seven Ohio-bred

2-year-old fillies in the $40,000 Glacial Princess Stakes at Beulah Park.

Mercer's Launch is the only stakes winner in the field by virtue of her

1 3/4-length score in the Emerald Necklace at Thistledown in September. She has finished third in each of her three subsequent starts, including the $75,000 Best of Ohio Juvenile Fillies at Saturday's 1 1/16-mile distance here Oct. 8.

The holiday season also is a season of transition for many horses and horsemen.

For a filly such as Endlessly, who will be one of the favorites Saturday in the $50,000 Holiday Inaugural at Turfway Park, the race likely will be her career finale before she is bred next year to Maria's Mon.

For Endlessly's trainer, Dale Romans, the race is a way to try to make a living before he and his best horses move south for the winter at Gulfstream Park.

"I've already got eight grass horses down there," said Romans. "The rest will go down in mid-December."

EAST BOSTON, Mass. - Now that long-term racing legislation has been enacted in this state, the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Breeders' Association has finalized its fall stakes program, which begins with Saturday's $25,000 Louise Kimball Distaff Championship at Suffolk Downs.

The Kimball honors the long-time driving force behind the MTBA, and it is the first of five stakes limited to Mass-breds that will be presented through the close of the meeting Dec. 22. Seven fillies and mares will run in the 1 1/16-mile Kimball on the main track.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - On an unusually balmy late November morning at Belmont Park, jockey John Velazquez said he had no idea where he stood in the standings for the year in New York, he was just happy to have spent the entire year healthy and in the saddle.

After a check of the press office's statistics, Velazquez will be delighted to know that he holds a sizeable lead in the standings and will likely win his first year-end title in New York since becoming a regular on the circuit 11 years ago.

NEW ORLEANS - For opening week, at least, Gerard Melancon is king of the Fair Grounds jockeys. Melancon, a four-time riding champion at Evangeline Downs in Lafayette, La., won eight races here last week, one more than Eddie Martin, his nearest pursuer. A 34-year-old Louisiana native, Melancon has shed the traces of a checkered past, and has raised his game to a new level.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Provo will attempt to improve his remarkable record of 7 wins from

10 starts on Friday when he takes on five other 3-year-olds in the six-furlong allowance feature at Portland Meadows.

Provo, an obscurely bred son of Pro Chapeau who sold for only $900 as a yearling, won 5 of 6 outings here last season, including three stakes.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - With the La Canada series at Santa Anita on the horizon, Mon Ange faces her first test around two turns in an allowance race at Hollywood Park on Friday.

Unbeaten in two starts, Mon Ange is the likely favorite against four others in the seventh race, run over 1 1/16 miles. A win would make her a leading contender for the $200,000 La Brea Stakes over seven furlongs on Dec. 29.

"I think she can route," trainer Richard Matlow said. "She relaxes well. She'll work as fast or as slow as you want. She can lay off it."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Stakes winners El Prado Essence and Except for Wanda head Friday's Woodbine feature, a $67,200 allowance for fillies and mares.

A five-horse field was drawn for the seven-furlong dash, which is limited to nonwinners of $40,320 other than maiden or claiming since Oct. 1.

El Prado Essence won her first stakes, the Seaway on Sept. 7, by a neck while handing heavily favored Meadow Gem her first loss. She ran seven furlongs in 1:24.20, which was good for a 94 Beyer Figure.

NEW ORLEANS - The Fair Grounds overnight - the sheet of paper listing the horses entered in races two days hence - that came out Wednesday looked like it belonged on an index card, not a legal-sized sheet of paper. Seventy-one horses have been entered on Friday's 10-race program, an average of 7.1 horses per race. Things are not supposed to look like this here - last year's meet averaged 9.3 starters per race.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - After four consecutive starts in graded stakes, Free of Love is deserving of a shot in an easier spot, trainer Rick Violette said, and he has found a suitable allowance race for his 3-year-old on Friday at Aqueduct.

Free of Love, the runner-up in the Grade 1 Jim Dandy in August, is among nine entered in the eighth race, a third-level allowance

for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles.