HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Despite clipping heels and taking up sharply on the final bend of Saturday's Donn Handicap, Invasor came out of the race none the worse for wear, according to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. Invasor, the 2006 Horse of the Year, overcame his rough trip and rallied to a gutsy two-length victory over Hesanoldsalt in the Grade 1 Donn.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer David Fawkes isn't quite sure yet whether his improving 4-year-old Awesome Attitude is better on turf or dirt. But one thing Fawkes is fairly certain about is that his horse has a better chance of winning a first-level allowance race on the grass during the Gulfstream Park winter meet than he does on the main track.

For that reason, Fawkes entered Awesome Attitude in Friday's $46,000 main event, where he'll be one of the choices along with Lucky to Cope in a five-furlong dash to be run under entry-level allowance conditions on the grass.

ARCADIA, Calif. - E Z Warrior and Downthedustyroad, stakes winners for trainer Bob Baffert in recent weeks, will not start in stakes at Santa Anita this weekend because of minor injuries, Baffert said on Wednesday.

Downthedustyroad, the winner of the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes in late December, will miss two stakes opportunities after emerging from a workout on Monday with an undisclosed injury.

"She won't run this weekend," Baffert said, declining to reveal the injury. "She'll probably be out of training for 60 days."

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Though there is no official change in policy, there at least appears to be a meeting of the minds between New York Racing Association management and the jockeys regarding hospital care following ontrack spills.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Corinthian and Jazil, who met twice on the Kentucky Derby trail last winter, will renew acquaintances at Gulfstream Park on Thursday in the second and decidedly stronger division of a second level optional claiming race. The 1 1/8-mile mile co-features each offer a purse of $48,000.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Oaklawn will resume racing on Thursday after losing last week's four cards to inclement weather that left the racing surface frozen. In the mountain resort town of Hot Springs, temperatures can be erratic. Last year, Oaklawn lost Presidents Day weekend because of a winter storm, but prior to that, there had been no weather-related cancellations here since 2003.

Oaklawn's track is not winterized. No chemicals, such as salts, are used to keep the track from freezing.

Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack will present the same 17 stakes in 2007 that it offered a year ago. The order of the events, however, has been altered in an attempt to give more late-developing 2-year-olds a chance to run for added money.

The $200,000 New York Breeders' Futurity, the track's premier race for juveniles, has been pushed back a month from Labor Day weekend to Oct. 6.

The season's first two stakes for 2-year-olds, the Aspirant and the Lady Finger, each worth $100,000, will be run about three weeks later than usual, on Sept. 3 rather than mid-August.

NEW ORLEANS - Michael McCarthy has been a head trainer for less than two months, and already has won a pair of graded stakes races in California with Friendly Island and Ravel.

ARCADIA, Calif. - A.P. Xcellent will be loose on the lead in the seventh-race feature Thursday at Santa Anita. The scenario does not ensure victory for A.P. Xcellent, but it makes him look awfully tempting in the 1 1/2-mile turf race.

ARCADIA, Calif. - There are reasons not to like Romance Is Diane when she runs Saturday in the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita - her dirt races are slow; her only reasonably fast race was on Cushion Track.

So is Romance Is Diane a good filly or is she just lucky? Three straight wins will not satisfy skeptics, and why should they? Romance Is Diane earned ordinary Beyer Figures of 72 and 73 in a maiden race and the California Cup Juvenile Fillies, then improved to 85 when she switched to Cushion Track and won the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet.