Azeri – Azeri completed her preparations for the biggest challenge of her 24-race career with an early morning gallop under exercise rider C.T. Lang.

“Nothing has changed, just a routine gallop,” trainer D. Wayne Lukas said of the 6yo mare, who will tackle males for the second time in her career in the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic – Powered by Dodge. “I am more than satisified with how the week has gone. The last piece of the puzzle fell into place.”

Azeri, who will be ridden by four-time Classic winner Pat Day and break from post three, arrived at Lone Star on Tuesday morning and has galloped three mornings over the track.

Lukas, who counts the 1999 Classic with Cat Thief among his record 17 Breeders' Cup wins, was asked what he would like to see from Azeri on Saturday.

“I just want to break on top and just get better every step. I just want them to win,” Lukas said. “I don't care about scenarios that we have no control over. I just want a clean trip. I think we have enough talent and if they give us a chance to win it, I think we can.”

Birdstone – Marylou Whitney visited her homebred Classic contender Birdstone Friday morning at Barn B3 on the Lone Star Park backstretch. The prominent thoroughbred owner-breeder said the excitement of winning this year's Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes with the son of Grindstone-Dear Birdie would not be diminished should he not prevail in the Classic Saturday.

“He's given me more pleasure than I've had in my life. He doesn't owe me anything,” said Whitney, who campaigns Birdstone with her husband John Hendrickson. “He's already given me everything.”

Whitney credits her husband for the success of both Birdstone and his sister, Bird Town, the winner of the 2003 Kentucky Oaks. Hendrickson has assumed a strong role in choosing the stallions that are bred to their broodmares.

“My late husband `Sonny' Whitney had so many great horses and so many Grade I winners. I went dry for a long time, until John came around and arranged the breeding of my mares,” she said.

Before leaving the backstretch, Whitney stopped by the diminutive Birdstone's stall.

“Oh my goodness, he's so small, and all those other horses are so big,'' she said. “They look like elephants next to him. He's awfully small, but he's got such a big heart.”

Trainer Nick Zito reported that Birdstone galloped 1 5/8 miles Friday morning.

Bowman's Band – “Thirty-two hours from now and it will be history,” said Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens after his Classic entry galloped 1 1/4 miles Friday morning at Lone Star Park. “All the work is done, now you just have to bring them over there and hope you get the job done.”

According to Jerkens, Bowman's Band will have to run the race of his life to at least get a piece of the Classic. Winning it would end a 12-race losing streak for the 6yo Dixieland Band horse.

“He's a solid, hard-working professional,” Jerkens said. "The problem is that, in New York, you face two or three tough ones every race. Here, you find seven or eight tough ones.”

Jockey Cornelio Velasquez has the mount on Bowman's Band in the Classic.

Dynever – Trainer Christophe Clement has been stoic throughout the preparations of last year's Classic third-place finisher, and he continued that attitude Friday morning arriving to find the 4yo colt ready to go for this year's renewal.

“There is not much we can do now,” said Clement. “On the day before the race, it is out of our hands. I will not worry at this point.”

Assistant trainer and exercise rider Christopher Lorieul galloped Dynever 1 ¼ miles on the main track Friday.

Dynever entered last year's race largely unheralded and was sent off at 15-1 odds before finishing 2 ½ lengths behind Pleasantly Perfect. Big things were expected this season, but he has yet to live up to expectations and has gone winless in four starts since the San Bernardino. He was second in the Meadowlands Breeders' Cup Oct. 8 – the same way he came into the Classic in 2003.

“I don't know about confidence, but we come into the race the same way as last year,” said Clement. “This is the same tough race. There is the same winner (Pleasantly Perfect). We will send him there and try our best. He's very happy and we're very happy.”

Fantasticat — Super Derby winner Fantasticat galloped 1 ¼ miles Friday morning at 6:30. “I wish we were running today,” said trainer Bobby Barnett.

Fantasticat was purchased by Russ and Shelly Sherrod of Louisiana after his first two starts in Ireland. It took the Storm Cat colt seven starts to break his maiden, which he did this February at Fair Grounds Race Course. It was minutes after that race that Barnett found out he would be getting Fantasticat to train.

“The owners wanted him to race at Churchill Downs and that is where I'm based. They asked me right after he won the race,” said Barnett. “We started him one more time at Fair Grounds on the turf. He didn't do badly.

“But then we sent him to Churchill and he got sick. We got him back running and he won. The race on July 2, it was real hot that day. (fourth in allowance) The only bad race he's had was the West Virginia Derby (fifth on Aug. 7).”

Fantasticat is the first Breeders' Cup starter for the Sherrods, who own and operate the Louisiana Stallion Farm, formerly owned by the late John Franks. Barnett has had three Breeders' Cup starters, including Answer Lively, winner of the 1998 Juvenile (bred and owned by Franks). Fantasticat is his first starter in the Classic.

Freefourinternet – The 50-1 outsider, 2-for-2 since he was transferred to the barn of former Wayne Lukas assistant Mike Maker, galloped 1 ½ miles at Lone Star Park Friday.

Maker said there was “no reason” to school the 6yo horse in the paddock. “He's just so laid back in the paddock,” he said.

The trainer said he was neither surprised nor insulted by the long odds on Freefourinternet, who is owned by Equirace.Com LLC.

“It's a deep, competitive field,” he said. “His prior form until the last two races doesn't warrant much respect, and the caliber of horses he raced at Mountaineer (in the Labor Day Handicap) wasn't what it is here. At the (Hawthorne) Gold Cup, they were struggling to get horses other than for having Perfect Drift. It worked out well for us.

“It's nice to win two races of that caliber and know he's on top of his game going into the biggest race he's ever run.”

Funny Cide – At about 9:30 on Friday morning, assistant trainer Robin Smullen put on her game face.

“I had to chase a lot of people out of here,” she said. “I've tried to be good about it, but there were so many reporters and photographers here that I had to chase them away. Now we have to concentrate on the Classic.”

It is understandable that the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner has drawn so much attention. He displayed courage in winning the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park this month, and he has visually impressed everyone who has seen him since that race.

“He absolutely is doing better than he ever has,” said Smullen, who was aboard Funny Cide as local trainer Dallas Keen ponyied him to the main track Friday, where he jogged and cantered in the chute. “He had never been mature mentally or physically before, but now it looks like he is getting it all together. Hopefully, he is doing it at the right time.”

Jockey Jose Santos will ride Funny Cide in the Classic.

Trainer Barclay Tagg was expected to arrive from New York at about 1 p.m. Friday.

Ghostzapper – Stronach Stables' Ghostzapper, one of the favorites for Saturday's $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic, put in his final serious leg-stretching for the 1 ¼-miles centerpiece just after 7 a.m. Friday at Lone Star Park. Trainer Robert Frankel merely wanted an uneventful 1 1/2 mile gallop, but that was not to be.

The bay colt, winner of three graded stakes in three starts this year, went trackside with a pony and exercise rider Nuno Santos aboard. They came out at the same time the trainer had Breeders' Cup Mile candidate Nothing to Lose and exercise rider Humberto Gomez hit the oval with some similar galloping in mind.

Frankel's instruction to both riders was to backtrack to the eighth pole, then turn and gallop all the way around and finish at the five-eighths pole, a journey of 1 ½ miles. That wasn't a problem with Nothing to Lose, who accomplished his trip in good order. But when the trainer looked for Ghostzapper the second time around, he couldn't find him. Finally, he saw Santos walking back toward the six-furlong gap with the pony. Frankel quickly realized what had happened – the rider had misunderstood him and only galloped the horse to the five-eighths, failing to navigate the second tour of the track.

Adapting, he had Santos turn go back to galloping, adding a full tour of the strip, which the 4yo did in fine style and pulled up the second time looking sharp and fit.

The rider offered apologies and Frankel offered a shrug.

“What are you going to do,” the Hall of Fame conditioner said. “You've got to adapt to how it all happens. He's OK. He came back nice and loose. We got done what we needed to get done. So what we did today was interval training. If he wins tomorrow, we'll have to train him like that all the time.”

And to be sure, Frankel believes that Ghostzapper will win Saturday. The trainer has had dozen and dozens of exceptional horses in his remarkable career and he thinks that his Awesome Again colt ranks right up there with the best of them.

“You look at him, he doesn't look like much,” the trainer offered. “He's just a bay; nothing flashy at all. But his pedigree is terrific and he's got those things that the good horses have – he's got that big engine and the big heart. I think people will see tomorrow just how much horse he really is.”

Frankel repeated that he believes the 13-horse Classic is – in his mind – a three-horse race. Besides Ghostzapper, he also gives serious chances to defending champion Pleasantly Perfect and the up-and-coming runner Roses in May.

“In a race like this,” he noted, “with good horses running at each other, sometimes it's the horse who handles the track the best who comes away the winner. You need some luck, of course, and you need your horse to run his best. I think my horse is ready. It should be a helluva race.”

Newfoundland – A maintenance gallop this morning was on the agenda for trainer Todd Pletcher's Classic entry Friday morning. Having stood at the gate Thursday and having visited the paddock, Newfoundland's Friday routine was limited to a 1 1/4-miles gallop.

“He's our longshot,” said trainer Todd Pletcher. “But he earned his way here by doing so well in the Suburban and Jockey Club Gold Cup. He'll need to get lucky, but he can get the job done.”

Perfect Drift – The 5yo gelding jogged alongside a pony Friday morning as he has done the previous two mornings in preparation for a run in Saturday's Classic. Perfect Drift was schooled in the paddock Thursday afternoon.

“He's acting like he's really happy here,” groom Richard Anderson said.

Perfect Drift, who has finished off the board in his two previous starts in the Classic, will be ridden by Kent Desormeaux.

Personal Rush – Tomiro Fukami's 3yo was out for a canter on the main track Friday morning with jockey Frankie Dettori aboard for the first time.

“He's fine and fresh,” Dettori said. “In fact he nearly dropped me he's so fresh.”

A Kentucky-bred son of Wild Rush, Personal Rush never has started outside Japan. He's won his last two starts, including the Derby Grand Prix last out on Sept. 20 by nine lengths as the 4-5 favorite.

Trainer Kenji Yamauchi has had the Breeders' Cup Classic as his main goal for some time, Dettori said.

“They booked me two months ago,” the jockey said. “They were very keen to go. And, of course, they knew what they were doing booking me,” he added with a smile.

Dettori said it was hard to tell much about the horse from today's brief partnership.

“It was just a short canter,” he said, “but he felt good, very sharp. All my Breeders' Cup horses are outsiders … but outsiders with a chance.”

Pleasantly Perfect — The defending champion and morning line favorite galloped on the main track under exercise rider Crystal Brown. “It was an uneventful mile and a half,” said trainer Richard Mandella. “I wish we could just take him over there right now and get it over with.”

Owner Gerald Ford, a Dallas banker who races under the nom de course Diamond A Racing Corporation, visited the stable area with several friends. “Nervous,” said Ford, wearing a purple Breeders' Cup baseball cap with the words Pleasantly Perfect on the front, when asked how he felt. “I was not as nervous last year. That was because we weren't expected to do as much. If this was a beauty contest, I would feel very comfortable.”

Roses in May – Ken and Sarah Ramsey's Roses in May galloped 1 ½ miles after the renovation break on the main track under exercise rider Faustino Orantes.

The Dale Romans trainee is one of two Classic entrants with a spotless 2004 resume, having gone five for five. (Ghostzapper is unbeaten in three starts this year). Roses in May will break from post six under John Velazquez.

“We have a lot of speed to the inside of us,” Romans said. “I think John is in a perfect position to dictate what he wants to do. We will let him decide when the gate opens.”

An early arrival for the Classic, Roses in May has been at Lone Star since Oct. 19 and had a work over the track.

“I think it did,” Romans said when asked if he thought the early arrival played in his favor. “Everything has gone perfect since we have been here. I couldn't ask for any better.”