OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Though they have combined to lose their last 16 starts, the Richard Dutrow Jr.-trained uncoupled entry of Storm Minstrel and Slew Motion deserve serious consideration in Sunday's $60,000 Fickle Fanny Stakes at seven furlongs at Aqueduct.

, winless in 10 starts dating back to November 2004, will be making her third start for Dutrow. She finished seventh in the Dixie Flag Stakes on Jan. 16 before running a solid second behind Great Intentions in the Flip's Pleasure Stakes on Feb. 23.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - While most of the major New York outfits will soon be returning, one prominent horseman has left.

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas last month shipped all his horses out of New York and will not have a string for the Aqueduct or Belmont spring meets. The placards celebrating his numerous Triple Crown victories during the 1990's have been removed from Belmont Park's Barn 10 and soon the empty stalls will be filled with horses trained by Tom Albertrani.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Stormy Destin, an impressive debut winner, will take on stakes winner Love the Beach on Sunday in the $50,000 Rainbow Miss Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

A six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies, it is one of two restricted stakes on the card. The other is the $50,000 Rainbow for 3-year-olds. Both races are limited to horses bred in Arkansas.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Round Pond is scheduled to work at Oaklawn Park on Sunday in preparation for Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap, when she will be defending her home turf against such invaders as Grade 1 winners Happy Ticket, Star Parade, and Hollywood Story.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Life will be the favorite but Please Take Me Out is the one to catch in Sunday's $37,000 allowance feature at Gulfstream Park. The one-mile turf race for fillies and mares drew a field of six.

is coming off a fourth-place finish going 1 1/8 miles under similar conditions on March 13. The outing was the first in nearly three months for Life, who stalked a slow early pace and gained a short lead into the stretch before weakening in the final furlong.

ALBANY, Calif. - One reason for trainer Greg Gilchrist's success is his ability to plan for the future. The Eclipse Award-winning campaign he laid out for Lost in the Fog last year provides a perfect example. While Gilchrist is very good at setting his sights on the right target, he is also flexible enough to make adjustments.

When apprentice jockey Julien Leparoux broke the Turfway Park record for most wins in a meet Wednesday, the news was significant, although not very surprising. Riding records at Turfway have fallen with such regularity in recent years that it resembles the home-run barrage that is taking place in Major League Baseball.

STICKNEY, Ill. - There are at worst seven and at best as many as 10 horses that might start Saturday in the $500,000 Illinois Derby, Chicago's only Kentucky Derby prep race. And while the race is still a week away, entry day comes up much sooner, since the National Jockey Club puts together their Saturday programs on Tuesday.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Wireless wagering officially has arrived at Woodbine.

Originally scheduled to launch last summer but delayed while Woodbine fine-tuned its wireless network, the new technology was approved by the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency late last year.

"We tested it with a group of customers for the past four months, wagering with real dollars," said Andrew Macdonald, who spent roughly two years on the wireless wagering project and recently was promoted to vice president, marketing and customer communications, for Woodbine.

The Thoroughbred Owners of California's director for northern California, Jim Ghidella, will step aside from his position when the current Golden Gate Fields meeting ends on May 7.

Ghidella, 60, has held the post for the past eight years. Among the changes during his tenure were reforms for the workers' compensation program for California horsemen and a uniform purse schedule for northern California.