A first look at some of the New Mexico-based horses eyeing next spring’s Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby comes Friday in the $100,000 Riley Allison Futurity. A field of seven will go in the 49-year-old fixture at Sunland, including Tequila Factor, who last raced in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf; Alsvid, winner of the $75,000 Kip Deville at Remington Park in October; and Isn’t He Clever, an up-and-coming son of Smarty Jones.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Great Hot had a milestone trip to Kentucky in October, winning the Grade 2 Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland. She was in the state for one start too many from the perspective of trainer A.C. Avila. He was left frustrated by her 11th-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.

Gulfstream Park has received permission from the state to alter its live racing schedule next week and race Monday, Jan. 2, originally a dark day on the calendar, and close Wednesday, Jan. 4.

“We requested the change due to the incredible response we had from our fans for racing this past Monday,” explained Tim Ritvo, Gulfstream’s president and general manager. “With Jan. 2 also being a holiday for many people and with both Santa Anita and Aqueduct racing, we thought it was the right decision.”

Gulfstream’s all-sources handle exceeded $10.6 million on Monday.

The winter break at Los Alamitos – all 12 days of it – ends Friday when the track begins its 2011-12 meeting.

Year-round Quarter Horse racing has been a fixture at Los Alamitos since 2000, and the forthcoming year has a calendar similar to last year, with racing on a Friday-through-Sunday basis through Dec. 17, 2012.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There are any number of logical contenders in Friday’s extremely competitive $64,000 feature race at Gulfstream Park. But only one, In the Rough, appears to have the speed to control the high-priced optional claiming event scheduled to be run at 1 1/8 miles on the turf.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Starship Flare was bought privately in south Florida during the autumn. Nearly three months later, the transaction seems more and more like a bargain to trainer Kristin Mulhall.

“We stole her,” she said.

A former $32,000 maiden claimer, Starship Flare finished second by a nose in the Grade 3 Miesque Stakes for 2-year-old fillies over a mile on turf at Hollywood Park on Nov. 25 in her California debut.

As a result, Starship Flare will be favored to win her first stakes in Friday’s $75,000 Blue Norther Stakes over a mile on turf at Santa Anita.

The most difficult part of the 3-year-old filly Flash Mash’s start on Dec. 2 at Fair Grounds had nothing to do with the actual running of the race. Flash Mash did her best deer-in-headlights impersonation while being saddled in the paddock, then froze again after coming onto the track for the post parade. Briefly breaking free from her handlers, Flash Mash had to be led down the track and into the warm-up period by her trainer, Mike Stidham.

“I had to be the pony for a minute,” Stidham cracked.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Pick-six pools are shrinking in Southern California, yet the trend will be unnoticed Thursday at Santa Anita.

A string of opening-day upsets generated a carryover of $148,184 into Thursday, when bettors are expected to wager more than $750,000 chasing the pick six on races 3-8.

Monday’s $277,394 pick-six pool was the lowest opening-day pool in four years and a decline of nearly 40 percent from opening day one year ago. The good news for bettors is the Thursday carryover will negate much of the 23.68 percent takeout. First post is 1 p.m.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though he admitted that there were others who could have discovered it, New York Racing Association president and CEO Charles Hayward on Tuesday took responsibility for the mistake that led to NYRA charging too high a takeout rate on certain wagers for a 15-month period, an error that cost bettors $7.9 million.

Champ Pegasus, the millionaire multiple graded stakes winner, will resume training in February after undergoing surgery for a cannon bone injury suffered in the fall.

Trainer Richard Mandella said that a screw was placed in Champ Pegasus’s cannon bone after a second-place finish in the Clement Hirsch Turf Championship on Oct. 2. The injury disrupted plans for a potential start in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Turf or Japan Cup in November. Champ Pegasus was second in the 2010 BC Turf.