Arlene Phillips still knows the way to the Turf Paradise winner's circle. The 83-year-old trainer walked that path again here Jan. 7 when her homebred first-time starter Little Loca won the seventh race. Little Loca, a 5-year-old mare by Coarsegold Creek, relished the sloppy going, opening up early and increasing her margin from there to win the $5,000 maiden claiming race by 5 1/4 lengths at 10-1.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Don Von Hemel first came to Oaklawn Park some 50 years ago, but the meet that opens Friday could end up being his most memorable. Not only does he train one of the track's most exciting 3-year-olds in Sebastian County, but his sons, trainers Donnie Von Hemel and Kelly Von Hemel, Oaklawn regulars themselves, each have major stakes horses on the grounds. Donnie is gearing up Going Ballistic and Brownie Points for Oaklawn's top races for older horses, while Kelly's strength is in the sprint division with Miss Macy Sue and Semaphore Man.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - At an age when most Grade 1 winners have long since been retired, the resilient gelding Evening Attire keeps right on going. He ended his 9-year-old campaign with a hard-charging head victory in last month's Grade 3 Queens County Handicap that woke up sleepy Aqueduct and had Internet chat rooms buzzing.

Santa Anita will continue to race on its synthetic surface Cushion Track for the remainder of the current meeting, but the surface will be reconstituted with binding material and fibers from the synthetic surface Pro-Ride, a combination that is expected to solve the track's drainage problems, Santa Anita president Ron Charles announced on Tuesday.

No timetable was given for installing the new material, but Charles said work would likely begin in less than two weeks.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Final times have been lightning fast on the sand-based Santa Anita Cushion Track, a surface that well-regarded Ravel is not likely to race over again.

Following Ravel's fourth-place finish as the 3-1 second choice Saturday in the Grade 2 San Fernando Stakes, trainer Todd Pletcher said Ravel does not care for the surface and probably will ship out.

Steve Asmussen has become the perennial leading trainer at Fair Grounds, but what Asmussen is doing at the ongoing meet is unprecedented, even by his standards. And on top of it all, Asmussen unleashed a colt on Saturday - Lecomte Stakes winner Z Fortune - who may be a contender for major 3-year-old stakes in weeks to come.

Tribesman and Vicarino, perhaps Northern California's top two sprinters with Smokey Stover yet to start this year, satisfied their respective connections with their performances Sunday in a six-furlong Golden Gate Fields allowance race.

Tribesman opened an early advantage from the rail and maintained it all the way. He won in 1:08.34, only .02 of a second shy of his Tapeta track record, set in his previous start, the Nov. 23 Sausalito.

Vicarino, a two-time stakes winner, ran third in his first start since Jan. 1, 2007. He was edged for second late by Full Power Ahead.

The fifth annual Dubai Racing Carnival gets under way at Nad Al Sheba on Thursday night with the 15th running of Round 1 of the Group 3, $200,000 Maktoum Challenge, a one-mile dirt race intended as an early primer for the Dubai World Cup but with more of the feel of a Godolphin Mile prep.

Last year's winner, Imperialista, now trained by Saeed bin Suroor for Sheikh Mohammed's son Majid, has done nothing since then to deserve inclusion in the race, having finished ninth in last year's Maktoum Challenge-Round 2 and then last of 15 in his most recent outing 11 months ago.

ARCADIA, Calif. - For nearly a year, Sea of Pleasure has lived up to his hype.

Before he made his first start last March, Sea of Pleasure was one of the most talked about early season 2-year-olds, and he backed up the chatter with a four-length victory in track-record time in a two-furlong maiden race at Santa Anita.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Oaklawn Park will not be lacking for horses when the track opens its 54-date meet on Friday. There were 173 names on a giant work tab Tuesday morning, while almost all of the approximately 1,500 stalls in the stable area were occupied.

"We're over 1,450 and they're still coming in," racing secretary Pat Pope said of the horse population on Tuesday. "So, by opening day, we expect to be at capacity."