ROUNDUP: SOCAL VICTORIES DEEP IN HEART OF TEXAS.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Staff Writer

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - The results of the Breeders' Cup's 2-year-old races at Lone Star Park on Saturday put the spotlight on Southern California for the start of the next Triple Crown campaign.

Wilko, making his U.S. debut, sprang an upset in the $1.5 million Juvenile in his last start before a long-planned trainer switch from England's Jeremy Noseda to Hollywood Park-based Craig Dollase.

Two for 10 in England, his biggest win in a $13,500 race, Wilko passed Afleet Alex, Sun King and Consolidator in the last 200 yards under jockey Frankie Dettori to win by three-quarters of a length and pay $58.60. Favorite Roman Ruler was a punchless fifth.

``I'm just delighted for today,'' Noseda said of the switch, announced after J. Paul Reddam of Laguna Beach purchased 75-percent ownership in Wilko two weeks ago. ``I hope it works out for the future. I'm sure it will. He's a tough, hard-knocking horse.''

Earlier in the afternoon, favorite Sweet Catomine and jockey Corey Nakatani scored a sensational victory in the $1 million Juvenile Fillies for California trainer Julio Canani, who spoke teasingly of the possibility of taking on colts next season.

``I would have run her with the colts today'' if the Breeders' Cup Juvenile weren't restricted to males, Canani said with a grin from beneath a gray cowboy hat, apropos of the first Breeders' Cup held in Texas.

En route to a 3 3/4-length victory over Balletto, the largest of the day, Sweet Catomine was bumped in the clubhouse turn, and Nakatani had to check hard behind an opponent on the far turn before working up the lead in mid-stretch.

Sweet Catomine ($6.60), a daughter of Storm Cat owned by Martin and Pam Wygod of San Diego County, had won the Del Mar Debutante and Santa Anita's Oak Leaf.

The daughter of Storm Cat was clocked in 1:46.65 for 1 1/16 miles, missing Tempera's Juvenile Fillies record by 16/100ths of a second.

Wilko was clocked in 1:42.09, making it the fourth Breeders' Cup in a row in which the 2-year-old fillies' race was faster than the 2-year-old males'.

--Turf: The controversy of the day followed the 1 1/2-mile turf race, in which Better Talk Now and jockey Ramon Dominguez scored a $57.80 shocker and then survived a stewards' inquiry stemming from Kitten's Joy's trouble in the stretch.

Kitten's Joy, the odds-on favorite, finished second. The Lone Star stewards ruled that the result wasn't affected by the incidents in the final eighth of a mile. A more plausible ruling would have been that the trouble was caused by third-place Powerscourt or fourth-place Magistretti instead of by Better Talk Now.

``We obviously had to take up and check and then had to start over and come on again,'' said owner Ken Ramsey, whose Kitten's Joy lost his shots at the turf and 3-year-old championships. ``I'm not saying the winner was the cause of it.''

Winning trainer Graham Motion, English-born and Maryland-based, said he expected his 5-year-old gelding to be disqualified.

``It was a cruel 5 minutes (waiting for the stewards to review videotape),'' Motion said. ``I've been on the wrong side of so many of these.''

--Distaff: Ashado, with John Velazquez, surged out of the pack to a clear lead in mid-stretch and then held off Storm Flag Flying and slow-starting Stellar Jayne to win the major fillies-and-mares race by 1 1/4 lengths. Ashado ($6), the favorite, clinched the 3-year-old fillies championship.

The Distaff had been weakened when Azeri, the 2002 winner and Horse of the Year, went in the Classic instead.

``We can all speculate whether we would have beat Azeri. Who cares? We got the same check,'' said trainer Todd Pletcher, who got his first Breeders' Cup win on his 12th try.

--Sprint: Speightstown gave Pletcher and Velazquez their second wins of the day, taking the lead from two long shots at the head of the stretch after a rail trip while second-place Kela took a very wide path on the turn.

For Jerry Bailey, riding Kela, it was the third runner-up finish of the day.

``Bailey apologized for having to go wide,'' Kela trainer Mike Mitchell said, ``but that's the way the horse wants to run. I was pleased.''

Speightstown ($9.40) is 5 for 6 this season, mostly on the East Coast. The 6-year-old might have thrown a scare into Pico Central's owners, who thought they could skip the Breeders' Cup and still capture the sprinters' Eclipse Award.

--Filly & Mare Turf: Ouija Board ($3.80), the great 3-year-old filly from England, lived up to her short odds by rallying from sixth to win by 1 1/2 lengths under jockey Kieren Fallon's right-handed whip. Film Maker edged Wonder Again for second.