OCEANPORT, N.J. - Strap on the shoulder pads Thursday as Hurricane Shockey takes on Belichick in the allowance feature at Monmouth Park.

They square off in a $38,000 race at a mile and 70 yards for horses who have never won two races.

Trainer Jim Ryerson had high hopes for Hurricane Shockey, named for the New York Giants tight end, following a 2-year-old season in which the New Jersey-bred colt showed talent in open company by winning his maiden and finishing third in the Dover Stakes at Delaware Park.

ALBANY, Calif. - holds several distinctions on Thursday's Golden Gate Fields card.

The 8-year-old mare will be the oldest horse competing. She has hit the board 15 times, a figure matched by only Marquet First among runners on the day's card, and she has made 30 starts, the most of any of the day's runners. She is also the leading money-earner with $111,078.

And she is still a maiden.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Reade Baker will have more than strength in numbers going for him when he enters five fillies for Sunday's $500,000 Labatt Woodbine Oaks. He will also have quality.

The Baker quintet includes three fillies that are coming off stakes wins and will be among the top five choices in the 1 1/8-mile Oaks for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.

A field of 11 for the Woodbine Oaks is expected when the race is drawn on Thursday, beginning at noon in the trackside tent.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Got turf?

Lone Star Park does, all night on Thursday.

There are three turf allowances on the nine-race card, with grass being the focus in the fourth, sixth, and eighth races. A split entry-level allowance for 3-year-old fillies at one mile accounts for the fourth and sixth races, while the eighth is an entry-level allowance for 4-year-olds and upward at five furlongs. The purse for each of the three races is $27,500.

AUBURN, Wash. - Marva Jean has one great asset as a racehorse - she can run faster than just about anybody for two or three furlongs.

It has been the task of Frank Lucarelli, Marva Jean's resourceful trainer, to figure out how best to capitalize on that asset. When she was 2 and 3, Lucarelli used Marva Jean's speed at the beginning of her races and was rewarded with three good wins from 12 starts. Too often, however, and always in stakes, she tired in the late going.

A barn at Prairie Meadows has been quarantined by Iowa state veterinarians pending the outcome of tests for the equine herpes virus in a horse stabled in the barn.

An unraced 3-year-old trained by Paul Pearson was taken from Prairie's Barn D-4 to Iowa State University on Monday evening and placed in isolation upon the advice of Pearson's veterinarian, Dr. Brad Brown. The horse was running a fever of 101.8 degrees on Monday, according to Pearson, and also displayed evidence of neurological distress.

Upon learning of the case, Prairie Meadows state vets

The Delaware Racing Commission has lifted a quarantine on 33 horses at Delaware Park, the commission's veterinarian said on Tuesday.

The 33 horses, who have all tested negative for strangles twice, will be allowed to train with the rest of the horse population at Delaware Park and will have all restrictions on their movement and travel lifted, according to Dr. Wesley Towers, the commission veterinarian. The horses were all from a barn where one horse tested positive for strangles two weeks ago, leading to the quarantine.

Apalachian Thunder last raced at Prairie Meadows when finishing fifth in the Iowa Sprint Handicap last July 4. He has since trained at Hollywood Park and Churchill Downs, and on Thursday he will resurface at Arlington Park.

All the moving around probably will prove worth the trouble when Apalachian Thunder goes off as the favorite in the Thursday feature, a $31,000 allowance with a $50,000 claiming option. The six-furlong event occupies the customary eighth-race feature spot at the Arlington Heights, Ill., track.

CINCINNATI - Forty minutes before the first live race on a steamy Sunday afternoon at River Downs, a small group of onlookers congregated outside the stall of a 3-year-old colt named The White Fox, who was moments away from running in his first race.

As trainer Bill Connelly made final preparations before sending him on his way to the paddock, The White Fox was in a serene mood. Your average young colt might have been prone to skittishness with all the activity going on around him, at a time of day that until now had been reserved for relaxation.

ELMONT, N.Y. - If all the stakes races this week at Belmont Park are as competitive as Wednesday's $60,000 England's Legend, handicappers will be working overtime.

The England's Legend, scheduled for nine furlongs over Belmont's inner turf, drew a full field of 12, though not all will run. Trainer Michael Dickinson said Dynamia would scratch to run in Sunday's Politely Stakes at Monmouth. Trainer Jonathan Sheppard may run only one of the two he entered.

, who finished sixth March 12, have come back to win.