Race 3, first leg

ARCADIA, Calf. - Pick six bettors attacking the $87,781 carryover into the Thursday card at Santa Anita may need a singleton somewhere in the sequence to keep the cost of the ticket manageable.

The obvious options include race 5 favorite Hot Summer Breeze, the shortest price of the day at 6-5; or the favorite in race 8, Annie's Loaded at 7-2. The field Annie's Loaded faces is dismal. She drops in class and enters as the fastest filly in the field.

Those are the obvious favorites.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Hollywood Hit is officially a monster. He shattered Woodbine's six-furlong Polytrack record during an authoritative score Wednesday night at Woodbine in the $101,700 King Corrie Stakes.

Hollywood Hit ($3.40) went right to the lead under Jim McAleney, and was pressed by Stuck in Traffic through lively fractions, on a surface that was yielding quick clockings.

Perfect Bull, who has won route stakes in two of his last three starts, is being considered for the $400,000 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park on Oct. 11, trainer Bernell Rhone said. The horse won the $60,000 Minnesota-bred Derby and the $50,000 Minnesota Classic Championship in August before finishing second in the $75,000 Prairie Meadows Derby in his last start on Sept. 19.

"It may be a little ambitious for him, but he's a nice colt," Rhone said. "The Oklahoma Derby is going to get some starch, I would think. But he's home-based here."

This Saturday's Michigan Sire Stakes has brought the state's top jockey of the last 20 years back home to ride. Terry Houghton, who won numerous titles at Detroit Race Course and Great Lakes Downs, will return to Pinnacle Race Course, where he won the inaugural title last year.

Houghton rode six winners on the June 5-6 opening weekend, then left for greener pastures and purses in West Virginia, where he has won 76 races through Wednesday to be second in the standings at Mountaineer Park.

Stan Bowker has been named state steward for the Oaklawn Park meet that opens Jan. 15, the Arkansas Racing Commission announced. He replaces Gary Wilfert, who last month resigned from his position as state steward in Indiana. Bowker will work at Oaklawn with association stewards Larry Snyder and John Ferrara. Ferrara is currently a steward at Retama Park.

The most attractive racing program of the Ohio season will be held at Thistledown on Saturday as the Grade 2 Ohio Derby will share a card with the five-race Best of Ohio series for statebreds, which traditionally determines Ohio-bred divisional champions.

Gone Astray, who dominated the Pennsylvania Derby field with a 9 1/4-length win in his last start, has been installed as the 8-5 morning-line favorite in the 13-horse Ohio Derby.

The three placing judges involved in a mix-up regarding the superfecta in the ninth race at Belmont Park on Sept. 24 - resulting in the New York Racing Association having to make two payouts - were each suspended one week without pay, track officials announced Wednesday afternoon.

One judge, Stephen Foster, began his suspension on Wednesday, while Sentell Taylor and Ralph Theroux Jr. will each serve a week suspension before the Belmont fall meet ends on Oct. 25.

ARCADIA, Calif. - After the trouble he has caused around trainer Peter Eurton's barn this week, Star Nichols needs to win Saturday's $200,000 California Cup Classic at Santa Anita just to redeem himself.

When Star Nicholas was leaving the main track after a gallop on Tuesday, he unseated exercise rider A.C. Valenzuela, who broke an ankle in the spill, Eurton said.

"Something spooked in front of him and he dropped his shoulder," Eurton said. "He [threw off] Valenzuela and then stepped on him. A.C. said it was the first time he'd been hurt in 20 years."