Texas is a big, loud state with a history of Quarter Horse racing, and it only made sense for the state's most important Thoroughbred venue to produce notably quick times. That's been Lone Star Park, a fast-playing racing surface that bakes hard as a highway during June and July. But often, faster is not better, and Lone Star starts its 10th racing season trumpeting the virtues of a revamped track surface that, by many accounts, will be much easier on the vulnerable legs of the horses that race and train over it.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The weather forecast was wrong again. Rain was expected to wash out turf sprint racing this week at Santa Anita, but dry midweek weather allowed the racing office to pepper the Thursday card with three good downhill turf sprints.

Now comes the hard part. That is, predicting if a recent speed bias will continue in races 3, 5, and 7. Or, deciding if two closing winners Sunday in downhill sprints rules out bias as a handicapping factor.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Brother Derek came out of the Santa Anita Derby on Saturday in such good shape that he earned only two days' rest.

The race "didn't take much out of him," trainer Dan Hendricks said Tuesday. "I only gave him two days off; I usually give him three."

Brother Derek tack-walked Tuesday and will return to the track midweek, further indication of his condition. Hendricks typically gives horses a week before they return to the track.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Tiger, who has run big in his two starts this year, both for Jimmy Jerkens, breaks from the outside post in Thursday's eighth race at Aqueduct, a second-level allowance at six furlongs. Among Tiger's rivals is War Plan, the third-place finisher in the 2005 Withers Stakes, who is trained by Jimmy Jerkens's father, Allen.

When Gulfstream Park revamped and widened its turf course prior to the 2005 meet, the goal was to allow the track to run at least three grass races daily, and up to four when there was a need. Now, late in the 2006 meet - with many dirt races failing to attract enough horses - the course is getting used even more.

Five of Thursday's nine races at Gulfstream are on the turf, including the seventh race, a $75,000 claiming race for 3-year-olds at a mile that serves as the feature on a day in which there is not a single allowance race on the program.

ALBANY, Calif. - Dramatic Chance is typical of many mid-level claimers. She has ability and shows consistency, but is just a cut or two below the better runners on the grounds.

She will be bidding for a repeat when she meets five rivals in Thursday's Golden Gate Fields feature, a $25,000 claimer for fillies and mares at six furlongs.

Early nominations for the Arlington Million and $750,000 Beverly D. close on Wednesday night. The Grade 1 turf races will both be held on August 12. The Million, for 3-year-olds and up, will be run at 1 1/4 miles, while the Beverly D., for fillies and mares, is a 1 3/16-mile race.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The Wood Memorial may be history, but there are still some things to look forward to in the final three weeks, or 14 days, of Aqueduct's spring meet.

Grass racing returns to Aqueduct on Wednesday, and if the warmer temperatures decide to stick around, racing secretary P.J. Campo hopes to card two turf races a day when possible.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Larry Jones is the first to admit that is one-dimensional. As the trainer of a from-the-clouds closer whose fortunes are inextricably linked with how the race unfolds ahead of her, Jones said, "You always love to see them really mixing it up ahead of her."

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Melnyk Racing Stable and trainer Anthony Reinstedler have made a dent in the handicap ranks this meet with two quality horses, and one of them, Arch Hall, should start as a strong favorite Wednesday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Fifth Season at Oaklawn Park.

The 1 1/16-mile race continues the annual Racing Festival of the South, when nine stakes worth $2.8 million are decided over the final week of the meet at Oaklawn. A field of seven makes up the Fifth Season, with Greater Good, Real Dandy, and Prospective Kiss among the starters.