ARCADIA, Calif. - The surface on which the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap will be run Saturday will be almost as important as ability of the horses.

And the trainers of several Big Cap starters are hopeful that the latest variation of the synthetic main track at Santa Anita will produce equitable results in the 1 1/4-mile Big Cap, rather than another front-runner's paradise.

For much of the winter meet, late-runners such as Great Hunter have been fighting an uphill battle against the grain of a speed-friendly surface.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Maggi Moss is changing the direction of her stable, which led all owners in North America in wins in 2006. The objective is still to hit the wire first as much as possible, just with a higher-class horse.

"I'm trying to do quality over quantity," Moss said during a weekend trip to Oaklawn.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Reba Is Tops may have changed the approach to the game of one of her owners by winning the $57,810 Bay Meadows Distaff Sprint on Saturday.

Winning trainer Bud Klokstad and owners Eric Schweiger, Gordon Jarnig, Ken Marshall, and David Wakefield never really thought of the 4-year-old filly as a broodmare prospect.

"I used to breed, but I don't have any more broodmares," Schweiger said.

But now that Reba Is Tops is a stakes winner, Schweiger said he is considering keeping her and breeding her when her career is over.

ARCADIA, Calif. - For a horse that has won two $1 million races, Go Between has left jockey Garrett Gomez and trainer Bill Mott baffled as to what to expect in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on Saturday.

Guessing is always an option, but Go Between has fooled them in the past.

Gomez has ridden the 5-year-old horse to wins in the two seven-figure races - the Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs in 2006 and the Sunshine Millions Classic at Santa Anita on Jan. 26 - but is quick to say that Go Between is something of a head case.

A total of 31 stakes races worth almost $1.3 million have been scheduled for the 2008 meeting at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The schedule includes 14 open stakes, which have had their purses increased by $5,000 to $50,000 in order to meet new minimum black-type requirements.

"We just moved around some money in the stakes program," said Ray Miller, Assiniboia's racing secretary, noting that several stakes have had their purses cut to fund the upgrades.

The seeming disadvantage Curlin faces in the Jaguar Trophy Handicap of having to spot his five rivals 15 pounds each is, in handicapping reality, actually something of an advantage, given the mediocre quality of his opposition.

If all six runners were carrying the weight assigned according to the judgment of the Emirates Racing Authority handicapper, Curlin would be giving away between 20 and 29 pounds on Thursday night.

PHOENIX - Southern California invader Leonides had too much class for the locals, easily capturing Monday's $50,000 Palo Verde Stakes at Turf Paradise.

Trained by Vladimir Cerin, who is now 4 for 6 with Southern California raiders this meet, Leonides sat a couple lengths off the pace of El Mirage, pounced on that rival into the lane, and drew away to win easily by 4 1/4 lengths under Richard Migliore. El Mirage stayed on well to be second, 6 1/2 lengths clear of third-place finisher Midnight Wish in a field reduced to five after three scratches.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - A.P. Arrow and Daaher have been assigned high weight of 118 pounds for Saturday's Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap. But barring a last-second change in plans from trainers Todd Pletcher and Kiaran McLaughlin, neither is expected to start.

Pletcher, who trains three of the 10 horses nominated to the race, said Monday that he intends to run only Fairbanks in the 1 3/16-mile stakes. Fairbanks finished fifth, five lengths behind A.P. Arrow, in the Donn.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The Grade 1 winner Artiste Royale will try something new in Saturday's $300,000 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf at Santa Anita by running the shortest distance of his career.

In 21 races, the 7-year-old Artiste Royale has run at distances ranging from 1 1/16 miles to 1 1/2 miles in France, the United States, and Japan.

"Hopefully, he'll run well at a mile," trainer Neil Drysdale said. "Provided he runs well at a mile, that will improve his value as a stallion."

ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita has not ruled out replacing its existing synthetic track with a dirt surface, track president Ron Charles said over the weekend.

Charles told the California Horse Racing Board last week that Santa Anita will remove its existing synthetic track later this year, but did not say at the time whether another synthetic track or a dirt surface would be installed. On Sunday, he said the track has not finalized its choice.