NEW ORLEANS - A couple minutes after one of the Fair Grounds outriders made a spectacular catch of a rampaging loose horse going the wrong way at the three-eighths pole here Friday morning, there came a spectacular-looking chestnut with a big white face, going the right way as he galumphed past the three-eighths pole in the midst of a five-furlong work. That was Giant Oak, turning in his second timed workout of the winter as he prepares for the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 7.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Surf Cat, the millionaire who won six Grade 2 stakes in a four-year racing career, has been retired to stud at Old English Rancho in Sanger, Calif., trainer Bruce Headley said Friday.

Surf Cat, 7, won 9 of 23 starts and $1,045,420 for Marsha Naify and Aase Headley, who is Bruce's wife. A stud fee has not been determined. The stallion was en route to Old English Rancho on Friday, Bruce Headley said.

ARCADIA, Calif. - An upset victory by Where's Scarlet ($94.60) in Thursday's fifth race at Santa Anita has led to a double pick six carryover of $423,985 for Friday's program.

Where's Scarlet was the longest shot in the field. As difficult as she was to find in the pick six, her victory was preceded by an upset win by Tavern ($50.60) in the fourth race. Consecutive wins from those horses left many tickets out of the pick six sequence.

Friday's pick six covers the third through eighth races on an eight-race program that begins at 1 p.m.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer David Bernstein met jockey Martin Pedroza in the paddock before Thursday's second race at Santa Anita with a lump in his throat. Bernstein was about to give Pedroza a leg up on the 7-year-old gelding Return of the King, but admitted that such a routine gesture was far from easy.

The gelding was previously owned by Joseph and Alicia Ortega, who were among nine people killed in a shooting and fire in their home in nearby Covina, Calif., on Dec. 24.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Dale Romans best described Thursday's eighth race, a first-level allowance event for 3-year-olds, as the promising field walked out of the paddock and headed toward the racetrack.

"This is a Grade 1 never-won-two," he said to his colleague Ken McPeek. "One of us will be happy and four of us will get fired."

Francisco Torres, second-leading rider at Fair Grounds, avoided serious injury in a spill during training hours there Thursday. Torres was working a Mark Frostad-trained filly named Peaceful Forest when she collapsed and died. Torres was taken to University Hospital, where no consequential injuries were found, according to his agent, Derek Ducoing.

Pat Pope, who has nearly 30 years of experience as a racing secretary in Louisiana, Iowa, and Arkansas, was appointed racing secretary at Delaware Park on Thursday.

Pope has worked at Oaklawn Park since 1994. He served as racing secretary at Louisiana Downs from 1980 to 2006 and also held the same position at Prairie Meadows. He replaces Izzy Trejo, who resigned in September to accept a position as a steward at Turf Paradise.

Pope will begin his duties at Delaware in April after the conclusion of Oaklawn's meet. Delaware's 116-day meet begins April 25.

The Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante has been renamed the Darley Debutante and the purse raised from $250,000 to $300,000 after the racetrack and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum of Dubai, owner of Darley's multinational breeding operation, reached a sponsorship agreement, the track announced on Thursday.

The seven-furlong Debutante will be run on Sept. 5 this year. The race is a leading prep to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies each year.

GROVE CITY, Ohio - Beulah Park begins its winter/spring meet Saturday, with many business issues settled and some still up in the air.

What is certain is that Beulah will run 70 days this spring, and another 52 in the fall. Dates for 2009 were finally agreed upon in late December, when Beulah Park, River Downs, and the Ohio Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association settled their dispute over account-wagering revenue distribution and the number of days each track will run.

The Portland Meadows jockeys defeated a riding team from Golden Gate Fields on Wednesday in the first Golden Gate-Portland Meadows Jockey Challenge at the Portland track.

Portland riders finished one-two-three in the competition, which comprised four races. Debbie Hoonan-Trujillo scored one victory and had a pair of seconds to win the event. Javier Matias, who had a first, second and third from his four mounts, was second, with David Lopez, a late replacement for the injured Joe Crispin, third with one victory. Mark Anderson was the fourth Portland rider.