The biggest race of this meet, the Grade 2, $400,000 New Orleans Handicap, is slated for next Saturday, and there are major questions concerning which horses will wind up in the starting gate.

The New Orleans Handicap, won in recent years by such luminaries as Mineshaft and Saint Liam, drew 18 nominations when the race closed last Saturday, but it took work from Fair Grounds racing officials to get even that many, and it will apparently take more in the next week to put together a race that features more than a handful of runners.

MIAMI - The last time trainer Steve Asmussen brought More Than Promised to Calder he left with a bad taste in his mouth after his filly was disqualified from an apparent victory in the Georgia Oaks on May 6. More Than Promised will return to Calder for the first time since that controversial decision, riding the crest of a four-race win streak and as one of the choices in a wide-open field of 12 3-year-old fillies in Saturday's $100,000 Frances Genter Stakes.

MIAMI - Wayne Catalano must feel something like the Dutch boy trying to keep the dike plugged. Last week, he shipped most of a 25-horse contingent from Chicago to the Palm Meadows training center, but he also is trying to hang on to win yet another training title back home at Hawthorne.

"I left a few back in Chicago, just to be safe," said Catalano, who took a relatively comfortable 34-27 lead over Tom Tomillo into the final five-day stretch of the Hawthorne meet. "I will have all 25 down here before long."

OLDSMAR, Fla. - Charedi's Peak, who has won her first two starts by a combined 28 3/4 lengths, is just one of eight 2-year-old fillies who come into Saturday's 27th running of the $60,000 Sandpiper off a victory. The highlight of the New Year's Eve program at Tampa Bay Downs, the six-furlong Sandpiper attracted a field of 12.

has been a tough customer on the Southwest circuit for some time now. A 7-year-old, he looks to add to his impressive resume at Turf Paradise on Saturday, when he carries high weight of 122 pounds against six rivals in the $40,000 Cactus Wren Handicap. The 6 1/2-furlong event is for Arizona-breds, 3 years old and up.

Many of the 10 horses in Sunland's $166,933 Riley Allison Futurity on Saturday have taken turns beating one another. The 6 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-olds is a chance for some horse to step up and away from the crowd, and that horse might well be Forrest G.

Saturday's $50,000 Holiday Cheer Stakes at Turfway Park offers a test of back class vs. current form.

In the back-class camp are Fire Slam and Private Horde, who have won graded stakes - but a year and a half or more ago. Then in the recent form camp are sharp runners such as Yucatan and Sgt. Bert, who enter the six-furlong Holiday Cheer in top form, but without the bankrolls of Fire Slam and Private Horde.

CHICAGO - It's almost like an "everything must go" sale. Chicago horsemen are rushing in for one last spree before Hawthorne goes dark during the dead of winter.

Racing ends here Monday until late February, and 12 horses were entered in the Saturday feature, a third-level 1 1/16-mile allowance with a $35,000 claiming option. It's the kind of race that can be difficult to fill this time of year, but on this day, racing secretary Gary Duch's cup runneth over.

The year promises to go out with a bang on Saturday at Evangeline Downs, where five 2-year-olds will line up in the $100,000 Diamond Jo Stakes, the meeting's richest race.

Heading the field for the one-mile race is Premier Dance. A winner of six of his eight starts, has won five stakes in a row, including the Lafayette Stakes here on Labor Day weekend. His most recent start, a game half-length win in the $82,000 Eddy County Stakes at Zia Park on Nov. 25, came at one mile and was his first try around two turns.

Voo Kan Doo, whose last two out-of-town races were far better than either of his outings over the local course, looks like the fastest horse in the $40,000 Henry Mercer Memorial Stakes at Charles Town.

The seven-furlong race, restricted to West Virginia-bred 2-year-olds, is race 4 on a special matinee program that begins at 1 p.m.