ARCADIA, Calif. - Six months after he arrived from a successful run in Kentucky, jockey Alonso Quinonez has replicated his success in Southern California.

And he has done so despite losing his coveted apprentice allowance, staking his place in an increasingly tough group of jockeys.

At the Hollywood Park fall meeting that ended last Saturday, Quinonez finished with 14 wins, good enough for eighth place in the rider standings.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The Maryland-based trainer Michael Trombetta has won with 4 of the last 10 horses he has shipped to New York, with three of those wins coming in stakes races.

Saturday, Trombetta will try to continue his shipping success when he sends up P. Kerney for the Grade 3, $100,000 Gravesend Handicap. The Gravesend, contested at six furlongs over Aqueduct's inner track, was rescheduled for Saturday after being postponed Dec. 16, when that day's card was scrapped due to inclement weather.

MIAMI - The entry box was overflowing Wednesday for Saturday's $100,000 Pete Axthelm and $100,000 Frances A. Genter Stakes and not simply because the two races are scheduled to be run on the turf. The Axthelm and Genter also give trainers one final chance to race 3-year-olds against their own kind before everybody turns a year older next week.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Changes are afoot this winter at Santa Anita. The first long winter meet on a synthetic surface begins Wednesday, and bettors will be happy to find at least one custom still intact - an opening-day stakes filled with potential overlays.

Fourteen will run in the Grade 1, $250,000 Malibu Stakes, a seven-furlong sprint that is the first leg of the three-race Strub Series for 4-year-olds of 2008. While it is difficult to identify the likely favorite, it is tougher yet to find the winner.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The long winter meet at Santa Anita always begins with optimism. And as long as the weather stays dry, holiday spirits will remain high into the 2008 new year.

However, Santa Anita faces many unanswered questions Wednesday when the four-month, 85-day meet begins. It might be easier to find the winner of the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes - a wide-open field of 14 races seven furlongs - than resolving several key issues.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Perhaps it is the move to synthetic surfaces, renewed interest from deep-pocketed owners, or a statistical quirk, but the depth and quality of prospects for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks who will be based at Santa Anita this winter is unusually strong.

MIAMI - Allen Jerkens, who first came to race in south Florida in 1946, is back again for another winter and could be a major player on Saturday's Grand Slam III program at Calder.

Jerkens could send out contenders in both the Grade 3 Stage Door Betty Handicap and the Pete Axthelm Stakes. A Hall of Fame horseman, Jerkens has Cindy's Mom nominated for the 1 1/16-mile Stage Door Betty and both Sleeping Indian and Brooklyn Boy eligible for the 7 1/2-furlong Axthelm on the turf.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Considering the hours he puts in at the barn, trainer Mike Puype might best be described as a marathoner. But if he has his druthers the first week of the meeting at Santa Anita, he will be a sprinter.

Puype figures to break fast from the gate at Santa Anita, so loaded is he with horses sitting on ready. Puype has six runners on Wednesday's opening-day card, including starters in all three stakes races, and will follow that up with stakes starters on Saturday and Sunday, too.

OLDSMAR Fla. - The schedule for the first two weeks of live racing at Tampa Bay Downs has been light with only eight programs run prior to Christmas, but there have been a few noteworthy performances.

* Classy and Elusive, trained by Dale Bennett, came off a layoff to race in a six-furlong claiming sprint for nonwinners-of-two Dec. 8, and the Elusive Quality filly made quick work of her field as she smoked through a half of 45 seconds en route to an eight-length win while in a solid 1:11.04. She earned a career-best 72 Beyer Speed Figure.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Hollywood Park ended its 32-day fall meeting on Saturday by showing gains in both all-sources handle and ontrack attendance.

Although final figures from all advance deposit wagering sites were not available as of Sunday, daily average all-sources handle, including simulcast betting on other tracks, was pegged by track officials at about $10.9 million, up 4.8 percent from last year's $10.4 million. Last year's figures were buoyed by the simulcast of the Breeders' Cup, which this year fell during Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting.