OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Richard Dutrow Jr. didn't view it as a big upset when Cativa won at 5-1 in last month's Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Handicap at Laurel while heavy favorite Bear Fan finished off the board.

Bear Fan was wheeling back in three weeks after running poorly in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Sprint at Gulfstream Park. Cativa was riding a three-race winning streak, albeit against lesser company.

"I kind of didn't like the favorite in the race, and I felt our filly could beat the rest of them if we ran our race," Dutrow said.

Sunland Park in New Mexico has purchased an insurance policy that covers jockeys for up to $1 million in medical bills effective April 1, the racetrack announced Wednesday.

Sunland will join a handful of tracks that have increased insurance coverage for jockeys in recent months. Fair Grounds, Keeneland, and Turfway Park raised coverage to $1 million, and Gulfstream went to $500,000. Most tracks, Sunland included, previously carried policies limiting coverage to $100,000 in medical bills.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Beginning Friday, horses will have an extra 30-foot run to the clubhouse turn in all races carded at 1 1/8 miles at Gulfstream Park. The adjustment will come in the distance between the starting gate and the initial timing beam, which had been set at 40 feet over the first 62 days of the meeting. The change increases the run from the gate to the first turn from 370 feet to 400 feet.

Through Monday, horses at the meet breaking from posts 1 and 2 had won 26 of the 56 races held at 1 1/8 miles on the main track, or 46 percent of the races at the distance.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Last winter, Remind rebounded from a second-place finish in the Tampa Bay Breeders' Cup to win a third-level allowance race at Gulfstream Park. Remind returns on the anniversary of that victory, with his connections hoping history will repeat itself as he starts as the favorite against slightly tougher allowance competition in Friday's $39,000 feature at one mile on the turf.

Well, so much for the popular theory that a huge favorite will scare off his prospective opponents and make for a short field.

Proud Accolade, the Grade 1 winner who is passing the $500,000 Lane's End Stakes at Turfway Park on Saturday to run in the $100,000 Rushaway Stakes on the undercard, surely will be an odds-on choice in the Rushaway. But Turfway officials said Wednesday that the maximum of 12 starters may run in the Rushaway despite the presence of Proud Accolade, the Todd Pletcher-trained colt who will be ridden by Jerry Bailey.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Three-year-old colts and geldings and 3-year-old fillies share the spotlight at Bay Meadows on Friday.

Colts and geldings will run 5 1/2 furlongs in a $40,000 optional claimer. The fillies will run one mile in a first-level allowance race.

looks as if she will be tough to beat in the one-mile race for fillies. She is 2 for 3 in her brief career, with the lone loss a second-place finish behind undefeated Jewels of Bagdad.

ARCADIA, Calif. - This is a record Santa Anita had no interest in setting.

Yet another rainstorm pummeled the track on Tuesday afternoon, which increased the amount of rainfall at this meet, which began Dec. 26, to a single-season record of 44 1/2 inches, according to Steve Wood, the track superintendent. And there is more on the way. It began to rain lightly on Wednesday afternoon, and more rain was in the forecast for Thursday.

ARCADIA, Calif. - There are few trainers better at bringing a horse off a layoff, or improving on European form, than Wally Dollase. And that is why his entry of Brag and Godsend merits serious consideration in Friday's featured sixth race at Santa Anita, even though both 3-year-old fillies had only moderate campaigns in Britain last year.

The sixth race is at one mile for first-level allowance fillies, or those entered for an $80,000 claiming price.

NEW ORLEANS - The Fair Grounds meet lingers for one last weekend, but like a circus packing up to leave town, many racetrackers have already bid goodbye to their winter home in Louisiana, putting their horses on vans heading north to Kentucky and Canada, or heading west to Texas.

"A lot of people pull out right after the [March 19] Muniz," said trainer Neil Howard. "The last week is mostly races for Louisiana-breds, so if you don't have them in your barn there's not much reason to stick around."

But some will stay on, savoring the budding warmth of spring in New Orleans.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Munificence, second last month in the $100,000 Southwest Stakes, is scheduled to return to Oaklawn next month following his win last Saturday night in the $50,000 Sportsman's Paradise at Delta. In the Southwest, Munificence finished behind Greater Good, who won the Grade 3 Rebel on Saturday.