INGLEWOOD, Calif. - This has been a year of flashy rallies in important races by trainer Bruce Headley's horses.

Surf Cat has used his remarkable late kick to win three graded stakes and attract attention in the national handicap division.

used the same style when he won his stakes debut in the San Pedro Stakes at Santa Anita on April 9. Saturday, he starts for the first time in a graded stakes in the $150,000 Laz Barrera Memorial Stakes for 3-year-olds at Hollywood Park.

First post time for Saturday's program is 12:20 p.m. Pacific.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Patrick Biancone, from France, has trained horses on three continents. Neil Pessin, from Kentucky, as of Thursday afternoon was training a total of three horses. Divergent histories aside, Pessin and Biancone have horses worth watching in back-to-back races on Saturday afternoon at Arlington Park.

Arlington, it should be added, does not have rain in the forecast Saturday. With Thursday's main track rated good, Arlington had conducted wet-track, no-turf racing on seven straight programs.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - In the past month, Waupaca has been entered in two allowances on turf at Lone Star Park. Both times the races were moved to the main track because of wet weather, and he was subsequently scratched.

"We were thinking about sending him to the desert somewhere and see if we can make it rain," quipped Donnie Von Hemel, who trains Waupaca for Wayne Sanders.

MIAMI - Preakness Day 2005 will forever be remembered for Afleet Alex winning the middle leg of the Triple Crown after nearly being knocked off his feet at the head of the stretch.

But Afleet Alex was not the only horse to recover from a nearly disastrous trip and win a race that afternoon. Earlier in the day, Sir Ray somehow managed to come back after bolting around the clubhouse turn and down the backstretch to win the Maryland My Maryland Stakes at Calder.

A $60,000 purse is enough to lure from Calder Race Course to Monmouth Park, where he starts Saturday in the Select Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong race restricted to 3-year-olds. And in Yes He's the Man, the Select has almost certainly found its favorite.

Fortunately for trainer Mike Gorham, he wasn't on the witness stand in court when he stated a week ago that Trickle of Gold wouldn't return on short rest to run in the Sweet and Sassy Stakes at Delaware Park.

Gorham clearly changed his mind between then and now, because the 4-year-old Trickle of Gold will indeed come back two weeks after setting a track record in Saturday's $75,000 Sweet and Sassy at six furlongs.

Three sprinters, each coming off a daylight victory in similar local allowance races, appear difficult to separate in the $50,000 Country Road at Charles Town.

The 4 1/2-furlong race drew a field of 10 3-year-old fillies, plus one also-eligible.

Among those three last-out winners, each of whom exit a third-level allowance race, the best performance at the distance of the Country Road belongs to Bindloe. She may be susceptible to a bounce, however, after improving from a 58 Beyer Speed Figure all the way to an 84 last time out.

Outcashem, who has won 9 of 10 starts at five different tracks since June 2005, goes for his fifth straight victory in the $75,000 Waterford Park Handicap at Mountaineer.

The 7-year-old Outcashem, trained by Scott Lake, comes off a wire-to-wire win in the five-furlong Panhandle at Mountaineer two weeks ago.

Yucatan and Danieltown, who each finished within two lengths of Outcashem in the Panhandle, are back to challenge him again.

It has been less than two months since Gaff went halfway around the world to compete in Dubai in the $2 million Golden Shaheen, finishing fifth in a race where American-based runners swept the first five spots. There is great debate over how long a horse needs to recover from such a lengthy journey. Two months? Six months? Never?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Look through the four-year history of the Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs, and one trainer's name keeps popping up: Steve Asmussen.

Saturday's $100,000 Matt Winn is no different. For the fifth year in a row, Asmussen has a representative in the race - his entrant Saturday being the returning He's Got Grit, the 8-5 morning-line favorite in a field that also includes such useful sprinters as Court Folly, Changing Weather, Deputy G, and Skeleton Crew.