HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Roses in May worked six furlongs in 1:12.07 at Gulfstream Park on Friday morning, giving every indication that he was on top of his game for the $6 million Dubai World Cup on March 26. Roses in May was to leave for Dubai Saturday.

With regular rider John Velazquez aboard, Roses in May went his opening half-mile in 47.88 seconds, then finished strongly before galloping out seven furlongs in 1:24.75. The work was the third bullet drill for Roses in May since his second-place finish behind Saint Liam in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap Feb. 5.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - It could be a stakes at Gulfstream Park.

No less than three of the 10 horses entered in Oaklawn Park's Grade 3, $125,000 Razorback Breeders' Cup Handicap on Sunday have shipped in from south Florida, led by Grade 2 winner Purge.

A 1 1/16-mile race, the Razorback is a prep for the Grade 2, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap on April 9.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Rockport Harbor is ready to rumble. In what was likely his final major prep for the Grade 3, $250,000 Rebel Stakes, he had a strong gallop at Oaklawn on Friday morning and was credited with a five-furlong breeze in 1:02.98.

The undefeated Rockport Harbor has been training well for the 1 1/16-mile Rebel, which will be run next Saturday, and he looked great Friday when he came onto the track a few minutes before 7 a.m. Central. He was accompanied by a pony ridden by his trainer, John Servis.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Racing on Aqueduct's inner track will continue through Thursday, with the opening of the main track now scheduled for Friday, New York Racing Association officials said.

The main track, which was scheduled to open on Wednesday, will open one day before the Grade 3, $150,000 Gotham Stakes for 3-year-olds is to be run. Thus, the Gotham will be conducted as a one-turn mile race as scheduled. This is the second time that the opening of the main track has been pushed back. It was originally scheduled to open March 9.

NEW ORLEANS - Racing secretary Ben Huffman has carded a lot of turf races during the Fair Grounds meet.

"When I was assigning stalls I thought I was at Colonial Downs, there were so many turf horses coming," he quipped.

Many of the turf races have been washed off the grass, and in some cases Huffman has been able to get the same horses back in a few days later. Sunday's co-feature is just such a race, a $33,000 turf allowance for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles.

Pat Byrne hardly could have mapped it out any better. The star of his stable, Magna Graduate, passed a critical test last weekend by easily winning the John Battaglia Memorial at Turfway Park, and now the colt is nearing peak form while pointing to the Lane's End Stakes.

"He needed to do what he did, first and foremost," Byrne said Friday. "It was an impressive race from him. He finished up strong, and although he may not have beat a whole lot, he did it the right way. I'm sure not going to take anything away from the colt."

SAN MATEO, Calif. - What makes a good turf horse?

Is it breeding? Is it the horse's foot? Is it the horse's action?

As with most handicapping questions, the best answer may be, "It depends."

Sunday's Bay Meadows feature finds six solid older runners meeting in a $50,000 optional claimer at 1 1/16 miles over the turf.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Quartern answered one question but posed another with her authoritative six-length victory on March 5 in the one-mile Mary Goldblatt Stakes for Oregon-bred 3-year-old fillies.

In winning for the fourth time from five starts, Quartern definitively demonstrated that she has no problem handling two turns. Now, what does she do for an encore?

Ellis Park has reconfigured its stakes schedule so that four stakes, including the $150,000 Gardenia, will be run on the biggest day of the 2005 meet, track officials announced Friday.

The Grade 3 Gardenia, the lone graded race at Ellis, now will be joined by two races for 2-year-olds and a new turf race for fillies and mares. Those races are the $75,000 James C. Ellis Juvenile, the $75,000 Anna M. Fisher Debutante, and the $100,000 Ellis Park Breeders' Cup Turf. The packaging of the four races will give Ellis the richest day in its 83-year history.

Cole Norman equaled Oaklawn Park's record for victories by a trainer on a card on Friday when he won five races on the program. The feat equaled the mark set by David Vance on April 7, 1973, and equaled by Bobby Barnett on Feb. 5, 1994.