STICKNEY, Ill. - Sylvia Harris won the first race of her career as a jockey on Dec. 1 at Hawthorne. At age 40, it's a little late to be calling Harris an up-and-coming rider. But with a troubled past trailing behind her, the mere fact of her having made the races is pretty incredible.

Harris, a native of Sonoma County in Northern California, did not grow up around horses, her only connection to racing being occasional trips to the track with her father. She was athletic as a kid, running track and doing gymnastics, but her parents drew the line at riding - too dangerous.

ALBANY, Calif. - Jerry Hollendorfer is on the brink of another training milestone, sitting two wins shy of 5,000 for his career. He is the fourth-winningest trainer of all time, trailing Dale Baird (9,445), Jack Van Berg (6,378), and King Leatherbury (6,227) through Tuesday.

Hollendorfer will send out five runners Friday at Golden Gate Fields in search of the milestone victory, and each seems a legitimate contender.

Peppers Pride pushed her unbeaten streak to 14 when she drove to a 1 1/2-length win in the $125,000 New Mexico State Racing Commission Handicap at Sunland Park. She was the 127-pound highweight in the six-furlong race for New Mexico-bred fillies and mares, spotting her rivals between nine and 14 pounds. Hollywood Gone, weighted at 117, finished second after setting the pace in the race, while it was another four lengths back in third to Hang Glide.

STICKNEY, Ill. - It's certainly not like the connections of the 2-year-old Illinois-bred Instill weren't trying to win when Instill raced in an open two-turn entry-level allowance race on Nov.o25 at Hawthorne. But Instill's race that day served as a means to an end.

"I had talked to [jockey] Chris Emigh's agent [Jay Fedor] before we ran in that open race, and we talked about how if you didn't have a route race in you, you didn't win the Jim Edgar," said trainer John Wainwright.

MIAMI - Mach Ride, whose outstanding 2007 campaign came to an abrupt halt one week before the Breeders' Cup Sprint due to a foot abscess, appears fit and ready to begin his 2008 season after working four furlongs in 48.18 seconds here Monday.

Mach Ride, who upset Eclipse Award contenders Fabulous Strike and Smokey Stover when capturing Calder's Grade 2 Smile Sprint Handicap in July, went in 24.38 seconds and 36.67 before galloping out five furlongs in 1:01.12 immediately after the renovation break. He breezed in company with stablemate Husker Nation.

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. - Blues Girl Too broke two of Quarter Horse racing's most coveted records with an astonishingly easy win in Saturday's $1 million Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos.

In what may have been the last start of her career, Blues Girl Too, 3, ran 440 yards in 21.13 seconds, breaking the track record of 21.17 seconds set by Dash for Cash in the 1976 Champion of Champions. By beating seven other major stakes winners in the field of nine, Blues Girl Too became the richest female in Quarter Horse history.

Turfway Park officials have maintained that Polytrack does not render the track impervious to problems typically associated with winter. That point was driven home last weekend on two different occasions.

A 12-race Saturday program was compromised by the scratches of 23 horses, with the majority of them unable to reach the track because of hazardous road conditions. A nine-race Sunday program was canceled after just two races, with jockeys and management citing high winds and wind chill.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The first good decision made by the team behind Citronnade was to leave the filly in Sunday’s $150,000 Dahlia Handicap at Hollywood Park. When she drew the outside post position, trainer Bobby Frankel had considered scratching her.

ALBANY, Calif. - Heavily favored El Gato Malo cruised to an impressive victory in the $75,000 Gold Rush at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday, stamping himself as a horse to watch in 3-year-old stakes next year.

El Gato Malo ($2.80) rated nicely before making a strong inside move leaving the quarter pole to win the one-mile race by 4 1/4 lengths in 1:37.62. Late-running Bert's Law finished second, winning a three-way photo over pacesetting Many Rivers and Cafe Tortoni.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Country Star's decisive move on the turn of Saturday's $431,500 Hollywood Starlet Stakes at Hollywood Park served as a reminder of her lofty status in the 2-year-old filly division of 2007.

Winning her second consecutive Grade 1 stakes, Country Star rallied from fifth on the turn to score a convincing victory by 2 3/4 lengths, finishing 1 1/16 miles in a track record time of 1:40.54.