ARCADIA, Calif. -- Santa Anita is expected to be hit with a significant rainstorm on Friday, but those who brave the conditions, or at least find a warm place in a simulcast facility or near a computer, can try to get hot for six races and take down the pick six, which is seeded by a carryover of $88,566.01, the result of no one hitting the bet on Thursday.

 There are eight races scheduled for Friday, with first post at 1 p.m. Pacific. The pick six begins with the third race, scheduled for shortly after 2 p.m.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Track maintenance crews at Santa Anita, in concert with officials from Cushion Track Footings, worked feverishly on Thursday morning to prepare the main track in anticipation of a series of storms set to bear down on Southern California over the next few days.

The work took place less than 24 hours after Cushion Track announced it would replace the surface at the end of the meet if it continues to drain improperly.

NEW ORLEANS - Both Praia Da Pipa and Aidan's Bella are on a hunt for black type that leads through the seventh race at Fair Grounds on Saturday, a third-level allowance for fillies and mares going a mile on the turf.

Praia Da Pipa returns to the races after a seven-month layoff. She should be ready for this race, having worked six times over the Fair Grounds dirt course, and given trainer Bill Mott's success with horses returning after a layoff of more than six months.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - While temperatures were considerably lower than normal for an opening day at Gulfstream Park, that certainly wasn't the case for mutuel prices when the 89-day meet opened Thursday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The thermometer struggled to reach 13 degrees Thursday morning, not necessarily the ideal conditions one would want when training a promising 3-year-old up to a big race.

Though trainer Richard Schosberg kept Giant Moon in the barn on a bitterly cold Thursday morning, he doesn't think it will have any impact on his performance in Saturday's $75,000 Count Fleet Stakes at Aqueduct. The Count Fleet will be Giant Moon's first race against open company after going 3 for 3 against New York-breds in his 2-year-old season.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - At Gulfstream Park, Brian Lynch is considered the "house trainer" - the man in charge of the 74 horses track owner and Magna Entertainment Corporation chairman Frank Stronach has stabled at the Palm Meadows training center this winter.

But at Calder, Lynch is just another trainer - if, that is, you can call a guy with a 50 percent success rate just another trainer.

Cushion Track Footings, the company that installed the racing surface at Santa Anita, said in a release Wednesday that it will install a new surface at the end of the Santa Anita meeting if it can’t solve the drainage problems that have plagued the track since it was installed last summer.

Santa Anita, which has been running tests in an effort to determine the reasons for the drainage problems since before the current meet began on Dec. 26, is girding for heavy rainfall later this week.

ALBANY, Calif. - Ten 3-year-olds entered a one-mile first-level allowance race on Friday at Golden Gate Fields, and several of them are using the race as a prep for the Jan.o27 California Derby.

The top contenders are Many Rivers, who set the pace before finishing third behind El Gato Malo in the Gold Rush Stakes on Dec. 15, and Cafe Tortoni, fourth in the Gold Rush here and third in the Real Quiet at Hollywood Park in his last two starts.

ARCADIA, Calif. - By his estimation, Rafael Bejarano's win aboard Alexandra Rose in Tuesday's $110,400 Monrovia Handicap at Santa Anita was just his third ride down Santa Anita's hillside turf course.

Bejarano rode the unique course like a veteran, guiding Alexandra Rose from off the pace to win the Grade 3 race by three-quarters of a length over Society Hostess, who was disqualified and placed fifth for causing interference in deep stretch.

After a two-day carryover of $587,644, the pick six returned $54,636.80 to 27 ticket holders on Tuesday at Santa Anita.

Bettors added $1,598,097 to the pool on Tuesday, and many were still alive after La Tormenta ($3.60) won the first leg.

The other winners of the pick six races were Crown of Thorns ($18.60), Siamese Cat ($8.40), Sunday Dress ($6.40), Alexandra Rose ($15), and Stormin Jack ($13.20).

La Tormenta and Sunday Dress were the only winning favorites.