ETOBICOKE, Ontario - When the lengthy Woodbine meeting grinds to a close here late Sunday afternoon the majority of the local trainers will be taking a bit of a breather, knowing that the Feb. 1 opening of the training track will come all too soon.

But for others, like Sandy McPherson, the beat goes on, and on.

Heading into Friday's card, McPherson had sent out 19 winners and 58 in-the-money finishers from 115 starters at this meeting, good for purse earnings of $825,173.

A change in pace tactics may help Gold Nugget, the reigning Texas-bred of the Year, turn the tables on Chauffe Au Rouge in Saturday night's $50,000 Richard King Handicap at Sam Houston Race Park.

The 1 1/8-mile turf race is one of eight statebred stakes that will make up the ninth annual Texas Champions Day.

Gold Nugget and Chauffe Au Rouge met last in the $100,000 Texas Hall of Fame Stakes at Retama Park on Oct. 6. Gold Nugget set a pressured pace in that race, which went in course-record time, before being overtaken in the stretch by Chauffe Au Rouge.

The sprint-to-route angle works like magic for Lights on Broadway.

Trainer C.W. "Bubba" Cascio has used the formula to win two of the three richest Texas-bred stakes offered in the last year with the colt, who is set to defend his title in the $100,000 Star of Texas Stakes on Saturday night at Sam Houston Race Park in Houston.

The 1 1/16-mile race is one of eight statebred stakes that will make up the ninth annual Texas Champions Day card, which also features the open-company $150,000 Texan Juvenile. Together, the nine stakes are worth $625,000.

PHOENIX, Ariz. - She's a good-sized fish in the big pond of Southern California. So when Grade 1-caliber Alexine surfaces at Turf Paradise for Saturday's $75,000 Queen of the Green Handicap she will look Jaws. Still, with a hefty chunk of change on the line, the mile turf race for fillies and mares drew a field of 11, though there's little doubt Alexine is the one to beat.

MIAMI - Trainer Todd Pletcher has been on fire in New York over the past couple of weeks. On Saturday he figures to keep his hot streak alive in south Florida when he sends out Finality against 11 other 2-year-olds in Calder's $100,000 Mecke Stakes, which shares top billing with its filly counterpart the $100,000 Hollywood Wildcat Stakes on the 14-race program.

Last Saturday at Aqueduct, Pletcher sent out Left Bank and Graeme Hall to finish one-two in the Cigar Mile, Smok'n Frolic to win the Demoiselle Stakes, and Nokoma to run second in the Remsen.

ANDERSON, Ind. - Hoosier Park closes out its stakes schedule with a pair of races for Indiana-bred 2-year-old colts and geldings.

A field of 12 Indiana-breds will start in the $30,000 South Bend Stakes at one mile, which is carded as the fourth race on an 11-race card. In the ninth race, a field of eight colts and geldings sired by Indiana-registered stallions go six furlongs in the $40,000 Indiana Stallion Stakes.

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.