LAUREL, Md. - If racing is a game of numbers, then Tony Dutrow would seem to have an edge Saturday. Dutrow trains three of the eight starters in the $300,000 Barbara Fritchie Breeders' Cup Handicap, the first of two Grade 2 stakes to be run this holiday weekend at Laurel Park.

Dutrow will start Oprah Winney, Smart and Fancy, and Carmandia, and all stand a decent chance in the seven-furlong Fritchie.

"They're all on top of their game," said Chip Dutrow, an assistant to his brothers Tony and Richard.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The old saying "If it wasn't for bad luck he'd have no luck at all" could be the new motto for Mach Ride, a talented sprinter who has encountered nothing but bad luck since his fourth-place finish behind Henny Hughes in the Grade 1 King's Bishop Stakes last summer at Saratoga.

ARCADIA, Calif. - An emotional Tyler Baze broke out of a 31-race winless streak in an otherwise nondescript maiden claimer at Santa Anita on Wednesday, and the jockey later admitted that the recent slump has left him badly frustrated.

Baze won Wednesday's fifth race on Ready Maid ($9.80) and had tears in his eyes when he returned to the winner's circle. The victory was only his eighth win in the first 36 days of the meeting, and his first since Jan. 31.

"I haven't won a race in a month," he said on Wednesday. "You get frustrated with the seconds and thirds."

SAN MATEO, Calif. - When a horse returns after more than a year on the sidelines, there's always a question of how the horse will come back.

Monty Meier, who handles trainer Brian Koriner's northern California string, is confident that Thinking of Money, who has not run since winning a starter allowance race on Aug. 18, 2005, could prove very tough in her comeback in a first-level allowance Saturday at Bay Meadows.

"The way she acts tells me she's ready," he said. "She nips at everybody when they walk by her stall. She's being aggressive, which is a good sign."

NEW ORLEANS - The biggest question mark in the $75,000 Chou Croute Breeders' Cup Handicap on Saturday at Fair Grounds applies to Culinary. A multiple stakes winner, she would be tough as nails at her best but could be facing retirement if she turns in a poor showing here.

The Chou Croute, for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles, drew a field of six, five of them stakes winners. Culinary's toughest rivals figure to be Delicate Dynamite, the likely favorite, and Eyes on Eddy.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The cool tactics that Latent Heat displayed with a two-length win in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita in December may be needed in Saturday's $150,000 San Carlos Handicap.

Latent Heat won the first stakes of his career in the seven-furlong Malibu by stalking the early pace and pulling away. In the Grade 2 San Carlos, also at seven furlongs, Latent Heat will face a veteran group of sprinters that could present challenges throughout the race.

A year ago, trainer Todd Pletcher used the Sam F. Davis Stakes and Tampa Bay Derby as springboards to second-place finishes in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes with Bluegrass Cat. Pletcher will return to Tampa Bay Downs again this winter with another of his top Triple Crown hopefuls, Any Given Saturday, who figures to be the odds-on favorite over six other 3-year-olds in the $150,000 Sam F. Davis.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - Tonight Rainbow returns to Fonner Park as the defending champion in Saturday's $10,000 Grasmick Stakes at a half-mile as he opens his 2007 campaign.

Trained by Boyd Caster, Tonight Rainbow also won this race in 2004 and has become a fan favorite around Fonner Park. He also won the Budweiser-Tondi and Dowd Mile Stakes here last year and owns a career mark of 10-1-3 from 19 starts over this five-eighths-mile track. Chad Benjamin will come in to ride for Caster, who has based his stable in Oklahoma.

Power Surge won a stakes in his two-turn debut last month, and on Saturday night is well spotted to take another when he meets chief rival Daddy Warbucks in the $125,000 Jim's Orbit division of the Texas Stallion Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park.

The one-mile race for 3-year-olds is restricted to the offspring of nominated stallions, and it is one of two such stakes on the card. Stage Stop and Wrenice will meet in the $125,000 Two Altazano, which is the 3-year-old fillies division of the Texas Stallion Stakes.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark - Kettleoneup has won 3 of her last 4 starts by a combined 31 1/2 lengths, and the only horse to finish in front of her during that time has gone on to become one of the top-ranked fillies in the country.

Kettleoneup was second to Sugar Shake in an allowance at Churchill Downs in November. One start later, Sugar Shake won the Grade 2 El Encino, and last Saturday she took the Grade 1 Santa Maria.

"With Sugar Shake winning the Grade 1, it ups our stock a little bit," said Mike Tomlinson, who trains Kettleoneup.