BOSSIER CITY, La. - Private Gift stalked the early pace under Robby Albarado before challenging the leader and edging clear to win Saturday's $75,000 Truly Bound Stakes at the Fair Grounds meeting at Louisiana Downs. Longshot Freei gave ground grudgingly down the lane and settled for second, followed by La Reason and Lucky Sabre. Go Girlfriend Go was a late scratch.

ARCADIA, Calif. - One day after Christmas, there is one more gift to open - Santa Anita. The 86-day winter racing season begins Monday with optimum conditions - full fields, competitive races, and a forecast for warm weather and fast footing. The meet begins with high hopes, which in Southern California happens only twice a year.

"There are two meets we look forward to - Del Mar and Santa Anita," said trainer Bob Baffert.

Hollywood Park lost its turf course at the autumn meet that ended a week ago, and the result is an inventory of fresh turf horses

ARCADIA, Calif. - When Declan's Moon, the champion 2-year-old male of 2004, was knocked off the Kentucky Derby trail in March, California's contingent of 3-year-old prospects appeared to take a hit. The group, as a whole, drew little respect going into the 2005 Kentucky Derby. But when California-based runners, including the victorious Giacomo, took four of the first six spots in the Derby, it caused a re-evaluation of Santa Anita's spring preps.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Minister Eric's retirement lasted two months. Winner of the Grade 2 San Fernando last winter at Santa Anita, Minister Eric was retired by trainer Richard Mandella in the fall after nagging injuries and illness precluded him from running since Jan. 15. Mandella now says Minister Eric has done well physically since, leading to a change in plans.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Since the northern California racing calendar was revised last year to consist of shorter meets, handle and attendance has generally gone up. F. Jack Liebau, president of Bay Meadows, is confident those trends will continue when his track opens a 31-day holiday meet on Monday.

Long a proponent of shorter meets, Liebau says, "It helps the ontrack business because you get people in the area to come out. It's improbable to believe they will come out every day during a long meet."

ARCADIA, Calif. - It's an annual tradition that Del Mar's opening-day grass stakes, the Oceanside, is split into two divisions. A new tradition might be starting at Santa Anita. Without any grass racing at Hollywood Park the past seven weeks, trainers of grass runners were so eager to get going at Santa Anita on opening day Monday that 19 3-year-olds were entered in the Sir Beaufort Stakes, causing the one-mile turf race to be split into a pair of $75,000-added divisions.

In the first leg, which goes as the second race, Santa Anita Derby winner .

MIAMI - The 2005 racing season at Calder will end with a bang next Saturday with four stakes still to be decided, including the Grade 3 Frances A. Genter Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.

The 7 1/2-furlong Genter and its male counterpart, the 7 1/2-furlong Pete Axthelm Stakes, are both expected to draw large fields as the two races afford 3-year-olds their final opportunities to run against their peers before turning 4 the following day.

OLDSMAR Fla. - Bennett is a familiar name around Tampa Bay Downs, as veteran horseman Gerald Bennett has been a fixture here for many years. This season his son Dale is here with a string of 22 horses, and the early returns suggest he is poised for a good meet.

A Turfway Park-based 3-year-old filly stricken with the equine herpes virus was euthanized at Hagyard-Davidson-McGee Clinic in Lexington, Ky., on Friday, according to the filly's trainer, Chuck Simon. A Kentucky Department of Agriculture official said a quarantine of the 50-horse barn in which the filly was stabled at Turfway will likely continue for weeks.

In recent days, the filly had been suspected of having equine herpes, a contagious disease that causes upper respiratory problems and coordination loss. Test results on Friday confirmed the presence of the virus.

Celestial Legend, an easy winner in each of her last three starts at less than even money, figures to be a prohibitive favorite again in Monday's $75,000 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship at Laurel Park.

Her substantial edge on paper, however, hasn't prevented trainers Robin Graham and Graham Motion from hoping that lightning strikes twice in the same place. Both trainers have entered half-sisters to previous winners of the Championship, which is restricted to 2-year-old Maryland-bred fillies.