NEW YORK - The Grade 1, $500,000 Donn Handicap is the highest-graded and richest event in the nation Saturday, and it heads a card at Gulfstream that includes five other graded stakes worth an additional $650,000.

ARCADIA, Calif. - It is customary after any super-sized payoff for bettors to ask themselves a familiar question: "Could I have had it?"

Though the honest answer usually is no, hindsight is a shrewd ally for horseplayers who want to believe otherwise. With a lucky break here or a different selection there, things might have turned out as well as they did for one fortunate California horseplayer last Saturday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Basketball coaches regularly acknowledge the importance of depth, particularly early in a season. Teams that can go 10 deep or more with quality players can practice all out in five-on-five scrimmages for their first games, unlike teams with fewer top-flight athletes. This leaves them better prepared.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - If you're still trying to make heads or tails of what was going on last Saturday in the Sunshine Millions, where the average mutuel was $45.20 at Santa Anita and $44 at Gulfstream Park, join the club.

NEW YORK - Now that the Sunshine Millions has been run three times, it is a little easier to put this event in proper context. Despite boasting total purses of $3.6 million, the Sunshine Millions is a lot closer to the Claiming Crown than it is to what it takes as its model, the Breeders' Cup.

PHOENIX - Azeri and Sightseek are gone, off to make little Azeris and Sightseeks. While it's sad for those of us who like to see superstars, it's good news for those in the division previously relegated to the sidelines to take center stage and make a name for themselves.

LEXINGTON, KY. - Handicappers who pay attention to track bias frequently find more similarities in the sprint and route bias trends on the main track than they do in sprint and route trends on the turf. A check of the turf races run at Fair Grounds from Jan. 21-27 provides a good example of how divergent the winning pace profiles can be at different distances on the grass.

NEW YORK - Whether you like it as it is, or feel it can be something really special with some tinkering, there is no question that a big event like the is most welcome in the month of January. And Saturday's third edition of the Sunshine Millions, a concept that pits California-breds against Florida-breds in eight rich, alternating stakes events at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita worth a total of $3.6 million, dominates the national stakes schedule.

Classic

ARCADIA, Calif. - Whether you love or hate the , one thing is hardly debatable - the Saturday card at Santa Anita is a ripe with opportunity. The fields are full, the handicapping dilemmas are complex, and there is no reason to pass a race.

It starts in the $250,000 Sunshine Millions Oaks, race 3 at Santa Anita.

Was it real, or was it phony? That is the question surrounding the debut romp of Brooke's Halo, whose 93 Beyer is the highest in the Oaks lineup. But a handicapper cannot merely accept a wet-track victory at face value without asking questions.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - With wind-chill readings that made you wonder whether Aqueduct had been moved to the dark side of the moon, they called off Thursday's races after the early daily double.

That left plenty of extra time to prepare for Saturday's stakes action, so here are some thoughts on two of the more interesting handicapping questions of the day, involving Aqueduct's Paumonok Handicap and the Classic at Gulfstream Park.