STICKNEY, Ill. - Chicagoans can't stop talking about it: Actual winter finally returned to the Windy City after a long absence. Regular snowstorms and lingering cold snaps blew in throughout the second part of January and much of February - perfect timing for Hawthorne Race Course.

In a shift from last season, Hawthorne raced two weeks into January and pushed back its spring opener from Feb. 23 in 2007 to March 7 this year. The longer fall-winter meet was meant to entice local horsemen to stick around through the dark period, which seemed to work.

Beulah Park canceled racing Wednesday due to poor track conditions. It was the fourth straight racing day canceled at the Grove City, Ohio, racetrack.

After two days of heavy rains, the temperature dropped and an inch of snow fell on Wednesday.

Saturday's card was canceled after the second race because the track thawed unevenly. Racing was canceled Monday as the track continued to thaw from temperatures that hovered in the mid-60s, and Tuesday because of poor track conditions.

Beulah Park canceled racing Tuesday for the third consecutive racing day due to poor track conditions. Saturday's card was canceled after the second race because the track thawed unevenly. Racing was canceled Monday as the track continued to thaw from temperatures that hovered in the mid-60s.

Two inches of rain fell Monday night, causing the already muddy track to become unusable.

ARCADIA, Calif. - It took Mike Mitchell only three months to transform Ever a Friend from $62,500 claimer to Grade 1 winner, and the trainer attributes the gelding's rapid improvement to the Cushion Track at Hollywood Park, and stretching to two turns.

Ever a Friend blazed a mile on turf in 1:33.37 Saturday at Santa Anita, winning the Frank Kilroe Mile by nearly four lengths with a final quarter-mile in a shade over 22 seconds. According to Mitchell, the turn of foot was partly the result of workouts on the forgiving Hollywood surface.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Hystericalady's road back to the Breeders' Cup Distaff is scheduled to run through Oaklawn. Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said earlier this week that the mare is being pointed for the Grade 3, $175,000 Azeri Breeders' Cup, a 1 1/16-mile race Sunday that serves as the final local prep for the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - The El Camino Real Derby wasn't on trainer Dean Pederson's radar three weeks ago. But his rapidly improving 3-year-old Pleasure Grounds now seems to have the best chance of any locally based runner in Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 race at 1 1/16 miles.

Pleasure Grounds has run five times, with three wins and a pair of seconds, including a second in the six-furlong Stinson Beach Stakes on Jan. 5 at Golden Gate Fields. He won his first try around two turns in a one-mile $32,000 optional claimer here Feb. 15.

ARCADIA, Calif. - There seems to be little quit in Golden Doc A, who will be favored in Saturday's Grade 1, $300,000 Santa Anita Oaks.

Last October at 2, after Golden Doc A won her first stakes in the Anoakia Stakes at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting, trainer Barry Abrams said she deserved a break to prepare for a 2008 campaign.

It was a good idea, until he ran it by Golden Doc A.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Despite fewer people at the track and a drop in ontrack handle, total all-sources handle on Saturday's 11-race Santa Anita Handicap program increased slightly compared to last year.

The ontrack attendance on a cool and drizzly day was 41,377, a decline of 3.8 percent from the 43,024 that attended the 2007 program. The ontrack handle of $4,880,864 was down 16.8 percent from the 2007 figure of $5,864,253.

Pyro won the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 9 at Fair Grounds, in his 2008 debut, with a did-you-see-that, last-to-first stretch run – but he did not scare everyone away from Saturday’s $600,000 Louisiana Derby, the high point of the Fair Grounds meet.

The Louisiana Derby, one of six stakes on a 12-race card drawn Monday, got a field of nine, with top prospects Tale of Ekati and Majestic Warrior in from Florida to take on Pyro.

Florida-based Stevil, who has lost three entry-level allowance races since winning his debut last fall, was a surprise entrant from trainer Nick Zito.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Track announcer Larry Collmus may have summed it up best as Hey Byrn approached the wire well clear of a strong field of second-level allowance rivals in Sunday's third race at Gulfstream Park.

"This guy's for real!" Collmus exclaimed, as Hey Byrn put the finishing touches on his second straight impressive victory of the meet.