Sam Houston Race Park in Houston will offer 10-cent superfecta wagering on all races with seven or more betting interests beginning Thursday. The reduced-priced bet will be available on wheel and box combinations, making for a minimum superfecta wager of 20 cents.

The 10-cent minimum allows a bettor to include many horses in a superfecta for one-tenth the price of the typical $1 minimum. For example, a four-horse box that would cost $24 at the $1 minimum would cost $2.40 for a dime. Of course the payoff also is one-tenth the $1 payoff.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Steve Specht probably would not have considered running Kiss Kiss Kiss in Thursday's Bay Meadows feature, a one-mile allowance race, were it not for an unfortunate incident in her last start.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Racing fans are just now starting to awaken from their winter slumber, having heard the first siren call for the 131st Kentucky Derby. Pool 1 in the annual Derby future wager closed Sunday, giving many horseplayers their first reason to think about what will unfold at Churchill Downs on May 7.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Roses in May, who finished second behind Saint Liam in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap earlier this month, may not have to wait long for a rematch. The pair could be on a collision course to meet again in the Dubai World Cup on March 26.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Celtic Memories was a bit out of his element when he failed to make the lead in his 2005 debut. He also had the misfortune to be a part of the fastest one-mile turf race ever run and finish fourth behind Mr. Light's world-record-setting performance here on opening day.

The pace scenario figures to be more in his favor and the race likely to go considerably slower when Celtic Memories returns as the horse to beat against 10 rivals in Wednesday's $37,000 allowance feature at 1 1/8 miles on the grass.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Island Sand will race without blinkers for the first time on Sunday when she makes her 4-year-old debut in the $50,000 Pippin Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Oaklawn Park. The race is the first of two local preps for the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap.

Island Sand tuned up for the Pippin on Monday, working five furlongs in 1:02.20 under regular rider Terry Thompson. She galloped out six furlongs in 1:15.60.

"She did it so easy," said Cindy Jones, assistant to her husband, trainer Larry Jones. "It was a wonderful work.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Big Top Cat can prove he is worthy of being considered a Triple Crown hopeful when he makes his first start around two turns in a $52,000 allowance race at Santa Anita on Wednesday.

At the least, Big Top Cat's bloodlines suggest that a race over 1 1/16 miles is within his ability. Big Top Cat is by top stallion Storm Cat out of Golden Attraction, the champion 2-year-old filly of 1995.

ARCADIA, Calif. - In the 10 days since Corey Nakatani returned from a 30-day suspension, he won a Grade 1 for 3-year-old fillies, began to reassert himself on the jockeys' roster at Santa Anita, and emerged unscathed from a frightening spill.

"That's the ups and downs of the game," he said Sunday.

Saturday had both for Nakatani. He rode Sharp Lisa to a win in the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita. The victory was his second of the day and came 90 minutes after he was thrown from Tempest, who broke down severely in a sprint for claimers. Nakatani was not injured.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Galloping Grocer lost a horse race on Saturday, and perhaps a few supporters, but did not lose much ground to the other leading Kentucky Derby candidates who ran over the weekend. More importantly, though, Galloping Grocer did not lose the opportunity to make amends quickly.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Handicappers chasing the $43,205 pick-six carryover at Aqueduct on Wednesday may have found their single in the day's featured $46,000 second-level New York-bred allowance race.

, who has won two of his last three starts, clearly looks like the one to beat in the mile and 70-yard event, the eighth race on the nine-race card.