ALBANY, Calif. - Running against Smokey Stover wasn't what trainer John Snow envisioned when he brought Roscoe Pito to northern California from British Columbia.

But, like Smokey Stover's trainer, Greg Gilchrist, Snow is happy to get a chance to run despite the tough assignment in Sunday's Golden Gate Fields feature, a six-furlong allowance race.

The race, which twice failed to fill in the past week, drew five runners.

"We came down because we wanted to try him on the turf," Snow said. "We entered turf races several times at Bay Meadows, but they didn't fill."

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Einstein, last year's winner of the most important turf race of the meet, the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Breeders' Cup, may shift gears and instead point for the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap on the main track later in the meet.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Little Cascadian attempts to take advantage of Silver Patrona's absence to score her initial victory in Sunday's top offering at Portland Meadows, a six-furlong invitational handicap that has drawn a field of six 3-year-old fillies.

Silver Patrona has been more than a rival to Little Cascadian. She has been her nemesis. Little Cascadian has raced four times in her career, and Silver Patrona has won all of those races. Little Cascadian has finished second in three of those races, including the Janet Wineberg Stakes and last month's Jane Driggers Debutante Stakes.

Apprentice Jermaine Bridgmohan broke his collarbone, right hand and two ribs in a frightening spill during the the fifth race on Wednesday's opening-day program at Gulfstream Park.

Bridgmohan, the leading rider at the recently concluded Tropical at Calder meet, fell after his mount, Toms Mulligan, appeared to clip heels in traffic while near the lead going into the first turn of the 1 1/8-mile grass race. Toms Mulligan escaped the incident without injury.

HALLANDALE BEACH – Sweetnorthernsaint and Strong Contender, two horses heading in different directions this winter, will begin their 2007 journeys at the same point, as co-highweights in Saturday’s $100,000 Hal’s Hope Handicap.

The Grade 3 Hal’s Hope is one of three stakes on a card that also includes the $100,000 Mr. Prospector Handicap and the $100,000 Ft. Lauderdale Stakes on turf.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Instead of playing "First Call" to bring the horses onto the track for the Grade 3, $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita, horn-blower Jay Cohen might want to consider Bob Marley's "Redemption Song." Three of the leading candidates in the race are seeking to rebound from a decidedly disappointing effort in their last start, including Runway Rosie and Mistical Plan, who were up the track in the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Put a line through his one race in Canada, and Ballast has been a model of class and consistency since migrating to the United States from his native Ireland. Trainer Graham Motion believes an ugly 13th-place finish in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile in September was the result of several unfortunate circumstances and has since been proven an aberration. Assuming he's right, there is good reason to consider Ballast a major threat Saturday in the $100,000 Ft. Lauderdale Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Michael Trombetta decided to send a string of his large and successful stable to south Florida for the first time this winter. And thus far he has only one complaint.

"It's a little too hot down here," he said with a smile.

Trombetta is hoping things will be even hotter around his barn on Saturday when he sends out top contenders Sweetnorthernsaint in the Grade 3 Hal's Hope Handicap and Weigelia in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector Handicap.

NEW ORLEANS - Patriot Act, a fast-closing second in the Tenacious Handicap in his last start, seems set to improve on that finish when he faces five rivals in Sunday's $75,000 Louisiana Breeders' Cup Handicap at Fair Grounds.

Running against the track bias in a paceless race, Patriot Act turned in a monster rally to miss by a neck in the Dec. 2 Tenacious Handicap, a race that thoroughly pleased trainer Neil Howard.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Johannesburg Star will try to prove he is not a one-hit wonder while attempting to join the Triple Crown trail when he meets seven rivals in Saturday's $65,000 Count Fleet Stakes at Aqueduct.

The Count Fleet, run at a mile and 70 yards over the inner track, has produced classic winners Prairie Bayou and Smarty Jones.