GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Lone Star Park leading rider Cliff Berry is coming off the most successful year of his career, and it has put him close to reaching 3,000 career wins. He was at 2,886 through Tuesday.

"I'm about 100 and something away and I feel like I can probably do it this year, if I have a good year," said Berry.

So far, his year has been better than good. Berry has won 75 races to date, and needs another 114 to reach 3,000. It is well within his grasp after he won a career-high 240 races and his mounts earned a personal best $3,654,765 last year.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - For the second day in a row, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has entered a promising 2-year-old in a 4 1/2-furlong maiden sprint at Bay Meadows. On Thursday, Hollendorfer sends out Bwana Bull, a $140,000 purchase at Keeneland last September. Bwana Bull will have seven rivals, including stablemate Tribal Trouble.

On Wednesday, Hollendorfer entered a filly he said he thinks has potential, Forest Huntress, a $110,000 purchase from the same Keeneland sale.

CHICAGO - The Wayne Catalano stable has four horses entered on Thursday's nine-race Arlington card, and it could be one of those Catalano days at Arlington, when winners rain down one upon another. Even so, the attention of Catalano and his main owner, Frank Calabrese, will shift East as this week progresses.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Shillelagh Slew, one of the favorites for this year's $1 million Queen's Plate, was scheduled to have his final prep in Saturday's Marine but will not be in the lineup.

"He's fighting a virus," said trainer Mike DePaulo on Tuesday morning.

Shillelagh Slew, a Quebec-bred colt owned by David James, had been highly regarded in the early prognostications for the June 25 Queen's Plate, a 1 1/4-mile race for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Stanley Hough is hoping for a different pace scenario from the Grade 3 Beaugay Handicap when he runs Brunilda back in Wednesday's $65,000 Thirty Flags Stakes at Belmont Park.

In the Beaugay, was a stalking third behind Pommes Frites, who got away with a half-mile in 49.93 seconds. When Brunilda made a move to the leader, Pommes Frites turned her back and went on to a narrow victory over Naissance Royale. Brunilda finished third.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The field for the Preakness on Monday appeared to be growing significantly. But you still won't find Sunriver among the list of horses being considered for the middle jewel of Thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown.

Third to Barbaro in the Florida Derby, but excluded from the Kentucky Derby due to insufficient graded stakes earnings, Sunriver would have been a logical contender for the Preakness. But trainer Todd Pletcher has targeted the Belmont Stakes for Sunriver and plans to use Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Peter Pan as the best way to get there.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It may only be mid-May with two legs of the Triple Crown still to be contested, but the focus of the 3-year-old male division in California is shifting toward turf.

Sunday's main race at Hollywood Park is the $100,000 Will Rogers Stakes for 3-year-olds on turf. Wednesday, two optional claiming races for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on turf are the principal races on the eight-race program. They are preps for the Cinema Breeders' Cup Handicap on June 25, the first of five turf stakes for 3-year-olds between now and Labor Day worth $100,000 or more.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It seems American racing suits Grey Swallow just fine.

Making his first start in this country in the Grade 2 Jim Murray Handicap at Hollywood Park on Saturday, Grey Swallow gave one of the best performance in an already outstanding career, drawing away from four overmatched rivals to win by five lengths.

"I thought he'd win, but I didn't think he'd win like that," said Robert Dolan, an assistant to Irish trainer Dermot Weld.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - If the caliber of horses that Todd Pletcher left behind at Churchill Downs following the May 6 Kentucky Derby is supposed to be second-string, well, it's scary to think how good his first string at Belmont Park might be.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Bushfire, the Ashland Stakes winner who finished third before being disqualified to sixth in the May 5 Kentucky Oaks, probably will have her first breeze since the Oaks this coming weekend and will continue running in the best races in the 3-year-old filly division, trainer Eddie Kenneally said Monday.

Kenneally said Bushfire will be pointed to the June 10 Acorn, the July 1 Mother Goose, and/or the July 15 Delaware Oaks.