Ashado – It was a quiet morning for Ashado who galloped 1 1/4 miles. Second in the Juvenile Fillies last year, she will be trainer Todd Pletcher's first chance to end his 0-for-12 Breeders' Cup losing streak when she goes to post in the Breeders' Cup Distaff, presented by Nextel.

John Velazquez will ride.

Bare Necessities – Iron County Farm's homebred jogged a mile the wrong way and then galloped a mile the right way at Lone Star Park Friday.

She was scheduled to visit the paddock during the first race.

“I'm very pleased,” said trainer Frank Kirby. “She's sharp. She feels good. She's training really well. We're hoping.”

Kirby's brother Lonnie, general manager of Iron County Farm in Arcadia, Mo., was at the barn and said that the farm still owns the 5yo's mother Shrewd Vixen. He also said Bare Necessities would be bred in 2005, but did not know if the Breeders' Cup Distaff would be her last race.

Elloluv – The 2003 Distaff runner-up galloped 1 1/8 miles Friday morning under the watchful eye of trainer Craig Dollase, who was making his first appearance at Lone Star, following arrival in Texas Thursday evening.

As for the defection of 2002 Distaff winner Azeri from the Distaff to the Classic, Dollase said, “I like our chances that much better.

He already had confidence in his 4yo daughter of Gilded Time as she trained up to the race. “She has taken well to the track and she's training well,” he said. “That's the most you can ask for.”

He expects to see her forwardly placed in the field as it travels over its 1 1/8 miles course to the finish line. He's hopeful that she'll be considerably forward when she passes the finish line.

Hollywood Story – Following the filly's second outing on the Lone Star main track, trainer John Shirreffs, making his first appearance following arrival Thursday from his Hollywood Park base, expressed satisfaction with her training Friday morning.

Reporting on her activity, Shirreffs said, “She jogged a mile, galloped a mile and,” he added with a chuckle, “she'll probably graze a mile.”

On a more serious note, Shirreffs said the Distaff was not exactly part of the plan when Hollywood Story returned from a break following her third-place finish in Hollywood Park's American Oaks on July 3. “When she started back after the break, we wondered where we might run. She began training so well, that this race came to mind as a possibility.”

Her past two workouts have been bullet efforts at 7f at her Hollywood Park base, and Shirreffs believes that puts her right on target for a big effort in Saturday's Distaff. “When you go 1:24 and change and 1:23 and change, you're only going 12 [seconds] per eighth [mile], and that's what they have to do to be effective,” Shirreffs said. “You have to get that pace thing going, so they have an idea of what the pace scenario is going to be.”

Shirreffs sees a Distaff without Azeri as “a little bit of a different race, obviously. Azeri is one of the best fillies ever to run. Take her out and it's a different race. It doesn't change it a lot for us, except it opens another slot.”

As for how Hollywood Story might find herself as the race progresses, Shirreffs said, “I think with her being a little fresh, she'll be close to the pace. We don't want her to be too far back. We want her to get a good position.”

Shirreffs has trained the 3yo daughter of Wild Rush, owned by George Krikorian, for her entire 10-race career, which started with being graded stakes-placed twice and fourth in the 2003 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies before breaking her maiden in the Hollywood Starlet. The race continues to be her only victory, while continuing to race at the highest levels and finishing off the board only once.

“She's very tough mentally,” Shirreffs said. “Nothing upsets her. When she runs, win or lose, she's the same horse out of each race and into each race.”

Indy Groove – Trainer Tom Proctor sends out Glen Hill Farm's 4yo filly Indy Groove in the Breeders' Cup Distaff as a 20-to-1 chance on the morning line. Asked Friday morning how he viewed the decision to run Azeri in the Classic, he responded:

“I've done my homework and the way I see it, she (Indy Groove) only has to beat eight Grade I winners instead of nine. My father (Willard) always said, `nobody remembers who finished second,' but I guess it would be a pretty good day to finish third and a great day to be second, if she can't win it.”

Island Fashion – The husky roan filly Island Fashion was a picture at Lone Star Park Friday morning going through her final major preparations for her start in Saturday's $2 million Distaff.

The homebred daughter of Petionville went trackside under exercise rider Jenny Jonson shortly after the 8 a.m. renovation break and galloped 1 ¼ miles as trainer Marcelo Polanco looked on. The conditioner said he'd finish up his filly's activities by schooling her in the paddock after workouts, but before racing began at the North Texas track Friday afternoon.

The trainer, who came to the United States from Chile as a teenager, is an extremely low-key individual, but his quiet confidence in his charge's chances in the 11-horse Distaff are hard to disguise. Island Fashion is listed as the 5-1 third choice in the 9f test that will be the first Breeders' Cup race of the day.

“You know, we almost lost this filly,” Polanco said, recalling a severe sickness his filly endured this past summer. “When we got back from Japan (she ran unplaced there in June), we found out she had pneumonia. We took her to a horse hospital near Santa Anita and they found out she had an abscess on her lung. One of the doctors thought she might have had it for a long time; maybe even before she ran in the Santa Anita Handicap (against males on March 6, which she finished second to Southern Image).

“The doctors said we were lucky we caught it when we did. They treated her with all sorts of antibiotics and we basically shut her down for two months. We sent her up to the farm the Tommy Town Thoroughbreds people have up north of Santa Barbara. That's a great spot and it turned out to be good for her. She came back and she's been doing good ever since. She put her weight back on and she's eating really well. She's back to her old self again and that's pretty good.

“Her comeback race (a win Oct. 3 in the Lady's Secret at Santa Anita) was very good and I think it set her up right for this race. I'm very hopeful and I think she'll run well.”

Kerwin John will be back aboard Island Fashion as they break from post No. 10 Saturday.

Nebraska Tornado – The 4yo daughter of Storm Cat, who makes her main track debut in the Distaff Saturday, galloped a mile on the dirt Friday morning.

The Kentucky-bred, owned by Khalid Abdullah and trained by Andre Fabre, is winless in four starts this season after taking four of her five starts last year. She was entered in both the Distaff and Filly & Mare Turf for the Breeders' Cup, and will start in the Distaff.

“She won two Group 1 races on the turf last year,” said Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager for Khalid Abdullah. “It would have been a pity to retire her without trying her on the dirt.”

Nebraska Tornado was expected to be retired after the Breeders' Cup, but if she does well on the main track, she could be sent to trainer Bobby Frankel for another season of racing in the U.S.

Just like Arcangues – Fabre's huge upset winner of the 1993 Classic – Nebraska Tornado has been prepping on the dirt track near the trainer's yard in Chantilly.

“She trained on the All Along gallop,” Grimthorpe said. “Andre was pleased with her. She worked left-handed and went really well. He was encouraged to give this race a try.

“Of course, we know what we're up against,” Grimthorpe said, “but she deserves a chance.”

Society Selection – Her sire, Coronado's Quest, was a talented horse that, earlier in his career gained a reputation as a head case. After a breathing problem was corrected, he settled down somewhat and won races like the Haskell and the Travers.

“That was a good horse and his race in the Travers was remarkable,” said Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens. “The filly has her moments, but she is pretty hickory.”

Society Selection is out to break Jerkens 0-for-6 Breeders' Cup slump.

“We clipped her and Bowman's Band (for the Classic) when we got here because it was too hot for them,” Jerkens said. “We've done all that we could and they seem to have responded.

“But this race is so tough. Everybody has a shot. You just hope that she will fire her best one. That's really what it comes down to.”

Stellar Jayne – Dual Grade I winner Stellar Jayne galloped early Friday morning over the main track at Lone Star under exercise rider C.T. Lang.

Robby Albarado, who will be seeking his first Breeders' Cup victory, has the call on Stellar Jayne, who will break from the outside post, No. 11.

“That is not a good deal at all,” trainer D. Wayne Lukas said. “It's a bad post, but we will deal with it off the break and make the best of it.”

The 11-post has not been kind to Stellar Jayne.

Her last off-the-board finish was a seventh in the two-turn Kentucky Oaks in an 11-horse field. The worst finish on her 17-race career chart was an eighth in last year's Golden Rod at Churchill Downs – another two-turn race in which she broke from the 11 hole in an 11-post field.

Storm Flag Flying – The daughter of 1995 Juvenile Fillies champion My Flag and grand daughter of 1988 Distaff winner Personal Ensign galloped 1 1/8 miles Friday morning in preparation for her start in the Distaff.

Storm Flag Flying, who enjoyed her own Breeders' Cup success in the 2002 Juvenile Fillies, will have the services of jockey Jerry Bailey for the first time.

“Bailey's the type of rider who will get in position by the time they get to the head of the stretch that, if she's good enough, she'll have a chance to win,'' said McGaughey, who expects his 4yo filly will be better suited to the two-turn 1 1/8 miles at Lone Star than the one-turn 1 1/8 miles at Belmont Park.

McGaughey, who has trained all three generations of Breeders' Cup winners, will long remember Personal Ensign's historic victory over Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors in the Distaff on a dark, rainy day at Churchill Downs. Yet, he rarely sits down to watch a replay to relive the race that capped Personal Ensign's undefeated career.

“I only relive it in my mind to think about how she won to retire undefeated and what it meant, not only to me, but the whole racing industry,'' McGaughey said.

Tamweel – Turf Express Inc. and Darrell and Evelyn Yates' Tamweel jogged a half-mile and galloped a half-mile with a pony Friday morning after the renovation break under exercise rider Jose Hurst.

Trainer Wayne Catalano has had the 4yo Gulch mare under his care for four races, all on fast tracks. The 48-year-old conditioner was asked if he had any worries if the track came up wet early Saturday afternoon.

“I'm not concerned about it,” said Catalano, who will be saddling his first Breeders' Cup starter. “I'm sure they will have the track in the best possible shape they can have it.”

Rene Douglas, who has ridden Tamweel in her past four starts, has the call in the Distaff and will break from post three in the 11-horse field.

Catalano has a blueprint for Tamweel's Distaff run.

“The way I see the race, we'll be on the lead by a couple lengths, and then on the far turn we will open up about three; 4 ½ in midstretch, and it will be all over from there,” Catalano said. “They have to go over where we have been.”

So, Darrell Yates, your thoughts on that blueprint?

“I like the way that man thinks,” Yates said.