ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Richard Mandella saw the best and worst of his top 3-year-olds on Sunday's opening-day card at Santa Anita.

Action This Day, the champion 2-year-old male of 2003, left Mandella baffled after a dull ninth as the favorite in a one-mile allowance race on turf.

Conversely, Mandella can expect a top season in 2005 from Rock Hard Ten, who scored an impressive win in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes over seven furlongs.

The diverse results left Mandella plotting the futures of the two colts on Monday.

ARCADIA, Calif. - After opening the meet with a pair of Grade 1 stakes, Santa Anita on Wednesday returns with a less glamorous card, but one that could unveil future stakes stars. A pair of allowance races, which go as the sixth and seventh races, feature lightly raced runners who could be headed to stakes competition soon after the new year.

MIAMI - Second of June did about everything trainer Bill Cesare could have hoped for when he returned from a 10-month layoff in Monday's - everything but win.

Making his first start since finishing second in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes on Feb. 14, Second of June was beaten a neck by the older, more experienced Smooth Lover after briefly overtaking the pacesetter between calls at midstretch in his 3-year-old finale.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Following a nine-day holiday hiatus, racing returns to Aqueduct on Wednesday with a pick-six carryover of $37,112 and the $75,000 Gallant Fox Handicap at 1 5/8 miles over the inner track.

The Gallant Fox, which drew a field of nine, will go as race eight on the nine-race card and will be the penultimate leg of the pick six.

Trainer Bruce Levine has won four of the last six runnings of the Gallant Fox - three times with Coyote Lakes and once with Aavelord. On Wednesday, he'll send out Hydrogen, one of the few in the field proven at marathon distances.

STICKNEY, Ill. - This is no country for racehorses. At frozen Hawthorne in December, the tiny pellets of winterized racing surface fly back from hooves to sting faces of horses and riders alike. The horses who don't get pelted are the ones who tend to win. "Inside speed," the bettors mutter, huddled inside the grandstand.

The Maryland Million is getting a bonus for its 20th running next fall. The program restricted to state-sired racehorses will undergo a major increase in funding this year, according to officials with Maryland Million Ltd. in Timonium, Md.

Calder Race Course unveiled a temporary safety rail on Sunday designed to keep horses from turning left and leaving the main course in races run out of the seven-furlong chute. Calder cards races at both 6 1/2 and seven furlongs out of the chute.

The innovative rail is an extension of the regular safety rail and replaces the pipe rail that is commonly used at racetracks throughout the country. The concept is the result of extensive research and development and is the only one of its kind, according to Steve Cross, director of racing surfaces at Calder.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Gary Gullo was hoping he could end 2004 and begin 2005 in the same manner: with stakes wins. But his hopes of starting 2005 with a victory in Saturday's Interborough Handicap were ruined when Travelator developed a problem that will keep her out of the race.

Coming off a head victory in the Garland of Roses Handicap on Dec. 11, Travelator would likely have been a strong favorite in the Interborough, run at six furlongs. But Gullo said she just doesn't seem to be doing well and will need more time.

ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Greg Gilchrist went to his home away from home to pick up a stakes victory and $30,000 for his talented 2-year-old Lost in the Fog on Sunday at Turf Paradise.

All Lost in the Fog did in winning the $50,000 Arizona Juvenile Stakes was cruise home 14 3/4 lengths in front of Scottsbluff and break a 10-year-old track record for the 6 1/2-furlong distance with a 1:13.55 clocking, 0.25 seconds faster than G Malleah's previous record.

Perilous Night ($9.20), winless in her last nine starts dating back to May, drove to a 1 3/4-length victory over Sea of Promises in the $50,000 Squan Song Stakes for Maryland-bred fillies and mares.

It was the first win for the 3-year-old Perilous Night, ridden by Jozbin Santana for trainer Dick Small, since she beat optional claimers on April 24.

Experts Only, the 2-1 favorite, showed no speed and rallied mildly to finish fourth in a field of 10.