ELMONT, N.Y. - When an illness prevented 2000 champion juvenile filly Caressing from making the major 3-year-old filly races of the spring, trainer David Vance started planning for the division's second season.

That season effectively starts Friday when Caressing heads a strong field of 3-year-old fillies entered in the Grade 1 $200,000 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park. The Acorn is the first leg of New York's Filly Triple Crown, which also consists of the Mother Goose and the Coaching Club American Oaks.

ARCADIA, Calif. - A bowed tendon has ended the racing career of the brilliant 3-year-old filly Golden Ballet. She sustained the injury during a workout Tuesday morning at Santa Anita.

ELMONT, N.Y. - A P Valentine, the Preakness Stakes runner-up, completed his preparation for Saturday's 133rd Belmont Stakes with a five-furlong drill in 59.35 seconds on Tuesday morning at Belmont Park. The time was the fourth best of 22 at the distance.

A P Valentine's work was the last serious drill among the nine horses expected to be entered Wednesday morning for the third leg of the Triple Crown.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The much-anticipated rivalry this week is between Monarchos and Point Given in the Belmont Stakes, but that's not the only important rematch taking place at Belmont this week.

On Thursday, jumpers Flasher and Praise the Prince meet for the fifth time in the $100,000-added Meadowbrook Stakes.

Twelve entered the 2 1/2-mile, 12-fence Meadowbrook, a Grade 1 and the final leg of the steeplechase triple crown for novice jumpers.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The New York Racing Association's decision in 1999 to revive the Fashion Stakes after a 16-year hiatus has certainly paid off for trainer Mark Hennig.

Hennig won the five-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies in each of the last two years and shoots for a third straight, with Ghost Wrestling in Thursday's 88th running of the Fashion. A field of nine was entered for the $75,000 race, which shares billing with the $100,000, Grade 1 Meadowbrook Steeplechase.

ELMONT, N.Y. - If John Ward had been training Monarchos for any other race than Saturday's 133rd Belmont Stakes, he probably would not have sent the colt out Sunday morning for a five-furlong workout over Belmont Park's muddy main track.

But as Ward, a conservative horseman by nature, has learned during his first trip down the entire Triple Crown trail, a trainer has to be willing to do things he wouldn't normally do.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Grass champion Perfect Sting will meet males for the first time in her career in Saturday's $400,000 Manhattan Handicap at Belmont Park, trainer Joe Orseno decided Tuesday.

Orseno had been mulling both the Grade 1 Manhattan at 1 1/4 miles and Saturday's $175,000-added Just a Game Breeders' Cup, a Grade 3 at one mile against her own sex, a race Perfect Sting won last year.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A disagreement between trainer Mike Mitchell and the owners of Grade 3 winner Skip to the Stone has led to the colt's transfer from Mitchell to Bob Baffert. The change happened Monday, one week after Skip to the Stone finished fourth in the Grade 3 Laz Barrera.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Mariage Royale, who set the pace and finished fourth in the Round Table Handicap May 13, is the one to beat in the $32,000 allowance feature at a mile on the turf at Bay Meadows Thursday.

Mariage Royale, who will be coupled with Robaleur in a Walter Family Trust-trainer Armando Lage entry, has only run three times. After a third-place finish in his debut versus straight maidens Mar. 31 at Golden Gate, he won a six-furlong maiden race at Bay Meadows.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After Five Delights posted two sensational victories to open her career last summer, trainer William "Jinks" Fires thought he might have the best horse from an equine family that has produced winner after winner.

But Five Delights, a 4-year-old filly by Seeking the Gold out of Fun Flight, a blue hen owned by Patricia Blass, was defeated in her next six starts. Finally, on May 23, Five Delights broke her losing streak by capturing a second-level allowance at Churchill Downs, confirming her trainer's long-held faith in her.