Six-figure pick six payouts were the order of the day Thursday at both Aqueduct and Gulfstream Park, with Gulfstream's payout of $799,191.60 more than double the track's previous high payoff for the wager on a non-Breeders' Cup card.

Only one ticket was alive going into the final race of the record seven-day pick six carryover at Gulfstream. That ticket was on the 2-1 favorite Pleasant Chimes, though, and her easy victory in the nightcap was worth $799,191.60 to the lone ticket-holder, who purchased the winning combination through the Lewiston, Maine, simulcast hub.

The new Evangeline Downs Racetrack and Casino in Opelousas, La., will hold its first card on Saturday, with 10 Quarter Horse trial races for the Mardi Gras Futurity and the Mardi Gras Derby. The track will then be dark until it officially begins its inaugural Quarter Horse meet, to run from Feb. 24 through March 27. The finals for both the Mardi Gras Futurity and Derby will be Feb. 26.

The new racetrack-casino complex is the first such facility to be built from the ground up anywhere in the country. The casino portion of the operation opened in December 2003.

Turfway Park canceled yet another racing program on Thursday, citing an unusable racetrack caused by a freeze-and-thaw cycle that continues to thwart and frustrate track personnel.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Trainer Ben Root is loaded with good 3-year-old fillies this season, and that will be apparent in Saturday's six-furlong Ms. Stakes at Portland Meadows.

Root entered three fillies - Quartern, the OTBA Stallion Stakes winner; Gordys Sweet Jordy, the Jane Driggers Debutante runner-up; and One Fast Cowgirl, second in the Lassie Stakes and third in the Driggers - in the $7,500 Ms., and the first two will definitely start. One Fast Cowgirl's status will be a race-day decision.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Seabiscuit Breeders' Cup Handicap at Bay Meadows could be a landmark for two of its entrants.

Eight runners entered the 1 1/16-mile race, including Desert Boom, a sharp claimer moving up for trainer Art Sherman, and Freddy, an Argentina-bred trained by Donald Burke who is still looking for his first U.S. victory.

Sherman said he wavered on whether to run Desert Boom before he and owner Robert Bone made the decision.

OLDSMAR, FLA. - Can one catch lightning in a bottle twice in one lifetime?

Trainer Lloyd "Pete" Palmer had in Silver Stockings a filly he felt had championship potential. She won the 2000 Gasparilla and Suncoast stakes, then suffered an injury that led to her retirement after a career in which she won 6 of 12 races and $162,000.

There's no shortage of sharp form among the 12 3-year-olds scheduled to run in Saturday's $75,000 Miracle Wood at Laurel Park. Seven horses come into the one-turn mile off a victory, and three others finished second or third in their most recent start.

Considered an early prep for horses who might develop into Preakness candidates, the Miracle Wood is also the first leg of the Magna Pick 5, which has a guaranteed pool of $500,000. The race features a rematch between Legal Control and Monster Chaser, the one-two finishers in the Maryland Juvenile Championship.

BALTIMORE - Creating a unified front to show they could spend slot machine proceeds wisely, Maryland horse racing officials unveiled a plan earlier this week that they said could revive the sport in the state if lawmakers authorize an expansion of gambling.

The 15-page plan is less notable for what it contains than for who signed it, bringing together competing factions whose back-biting has contributed to the failure of slot machine legislation for the past two years.

PHOENIX - Two recent stakes wins have set Muir Beach apart. She is, indeed, the top filly on the grounds at Turf Paradise, and looms the heavy favorite to make it three stakes wins in a row when she takes on six others in the $40,000 Princess of Palms Handicap on Saturday.

But with all her success comes a price. Because the six-furlong Princess of Palms is a handicap, it's time for Muir Beach to pay the piper, and in this case that means she will carry high weight of 127 pounds, conceding from seven to 20 pounds to her rivals.

To give you an idea how tough Sunland's $53,200 Curribot Handicap has come up, the field of eight has combined for 50 victories. There are at least two Southern California transplants who once competed with graded stakes company, and the hottest horse in the race, having won 3 of his last 4, might not even be one of the first two wagering choices.

Saturday's 1 1/16-mile Curribot, for 3-year-olds and upward, is loaded with options for bettors.