CHICAGO - Hope you liked the sixth race on Dec. 9 at Hawthorne, because they're basically running it again on Thursday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – One of the better 3-year-old fillies on this circuit last winter, Daytime Promise has not yet regained her best form since returning from injury last month.

Trainer Gary Contessa will give her a little help on Thursday, when he runs both Daytime Promise and Lunar Rendezvous as a coupled entry in a second-level allowance race at Aqueduct. The mile and 70-yard race also has an optional claiming provision of $35,000 but none of the nine horses entered is eligible to be claimed.

MIAMI - Tour of the Cat could take a big step toward reaching $1 million in career earnings Thursday, when he tops a field of five older runners entered in a $30,500 fourth-level allowance at 6 1/2 furlongs at Calder. The race also includes an optional claiming price of $62,500.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The timing is right, but the distance is wrong. If Somethinaboutlaura wins the $75,000 Kalookan Queen Handicap on Thursday at Santa Anita, it will be because she simply is the best filly in the race.

"It's not an ideal situation," said trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, citing the 6 1/2-furlong distance of the Kalookan Queen. "We're using this as a prep. The two-turn race is what we're shooting for."

ALBANY, Calif. - Thursday's Golden Gate Fields card was drawn 10 days earlier, a rarity that some trainers find beneficial.

"It makes it very easy," said Steve Sherman, who is in charge of his father Art's northern California string.

"I love when we enter four or five days out, like Saturday for Thursday [racing], or Sunday for Friday. You can plan your work schedule, your medication schedule."

The draw 10 days ago, on the closing day of Bay Meadows, allowed horsemen as well as the racing office staff a rare break during the year-round racing schedule.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Achilles of Troy, one of the fast risers and equally fast crashers on the 2006 Triple Crown trail, is working his way toward a comeback in 2007. On Dec. 17, he breezed three furlongs in 37.45 seconds over Aqueduct's inner track.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Get Funky completed a busy Del Mar meeting with an upset victory in the Del Mar Derby. He then got a vacation, which is scheduled to end on Tuesday, in the Grade 3, $100,000 Sir Beaufort Stakes at Santa Anita. But it's not like he's being welcomed back to work.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer John Terranova likens the impressive maiden winner Sports Town to a physically gifted athlete who is still learning what to do with his talent. How quickly Sports Town figures things out could determine how much fun Terranova and his owners will have with him as a 3-year-old colt in 2007.

OLDSMAR, Fla. - Turf runners from the Chicago circuit have been very successful in the early days of Tampa's meeting, which bodes well for Art of Diplomacy on Tuesday. The long-striding Diplomatic Jet gelding, who won a maiden race at Hawthorne in early November, tops a full field of 10 in an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles on the grass.

Jose Lezcano, last year's leading rider and regarded by most as a top turf jockey, will handle Art of Diplomacy for trainer Ronnie Behrens.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Hollywood Park already has put in Cushion Track. Del Mar will install Polytrack, and Golden Gate Fields will put in Tapeta. Synthetic surfaces are unspooling like carpet across California, the result of a mandate by the state's racing board to have synthetic surfaces installed at California's five major Thoroughbred tracks by the end of 2007.