HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Frank Alexander overcame the temptation to send out Nonsuch Bay in a short field for a big purse in the $200,000 Rampart Handicap to await Sunday's $75,000 Banshee Breeze Handicap at Gulfstream Park. His strategy should pay off if Nonsuch Bay simply runs back to her effort in the 2003 Banshee Breeze, which she won by more than four lengths.

Nonsuch Bay will head a field of 12 older fillies and mares in the 1 1/16-mile Banshee Breeze. She will carry 116 pounds, one fewer than highweight Pampered Princess.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who has been suspended since late January for failing to appear for a drug test, will not be allowed to ride until early 2005 after Santa Anita stewards terminated his conditional license on Friday.

In a one-page ruling, stewards Ingrid Fermin, Pete Pedersen, and Tom Ward ruled that Valenzuela had violated his conditional license for missing the test, and that the license was voided.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Consecrate, the runner-up in the WinStar Derby at Sunland Park on March 28, could make his next start in Saturday's $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Bob Baffert, Consecrate's trainer, said he planned on breezing the gelding at Santa Anita on Monday or Tuesday and making a decision after that.

"I'm sort of keeping my options open; if he tell us he's ready, we'll run," Baffert said Friday from California. "Horses like that, with a lot of starts, bounce out of their races good."

In an age when small fields are the rule rather than the exception in stakes races, Tampa Bay Downs offers a refreshing change for the bettor when it presents its second annual Florida Cup Day on Sunday.

The Florida Cup is a series of six stakes, geared toward but not restricted to registered Florida-breds. All of the races are $75,000-added and each has drawn full and competitive fields.

STICKNEY, Ill. - The standout statebred sisters Summer Mis and Julie's Prize both could make their next start April 10 at Hawthorne in Illinois-bred stakes races.

Or, neither could.

Their trainer, Tony Mitchell, was en route Friday from Aiken, S.C., to Chicago. That is the journey Summer Mis and Julie's Prize both made early in March. Both have started at the meet, Julie's Prize easily winning an open allowance race, Summer Mis finishing third to males in a tough open sprint allowance.

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - This year, for the first time, trainer Steve Asmussen has kept a string of horses here, and the results have been amazing.

With 18 stalls on the grounds, and a shuttle system between his training center in Laredo, Texas, and his stables at Sam Houston and Fair Grounds, Asmussen leads all trainers at Sunland with 51 wins from 175 starters, 15 more winners than Henry Dominguez in second place.

Among My Souvenirs would have been a heavy favorite in Sunday's $50,000 Smart Halo Stakes at Pimlico. Unbeaten in her first three starts, including stakes at Aqueduct and Laurel Park this season, the 3-year-old Among My Souvenirs was withdrawn from consideration for the six-furlong Smart Halo on Friday morning because of a hoof abscess.

The absence of Among My Souvenirs makes the Smart Halo a wide-open race among 10 evenly matched 3-year-old fillies.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Halfbridled, the morning-line favorite for the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland Saturday, was scratched from the race after "tying up," or suffering muscle cramps, following a routine gallop Friday morning.

Trainer Richard Mandella said the setback is only temporary and that he may even try to run Halfbridled on Thursday in the Stonerside Beaumont at Keeneland. Or, Mandella said, he may train Halfbridled up to the April 30 Kentucky Oaks.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Of the runners in Saturday's $750,000 , Wimbledon might be the best prospect for the Kentucky Derby four weeks hence, the lightly raced Rock Hard Ten might have the most upside four months from now, and Imperialism, trained by 21-year-old Kristin Mulhall, might make the best story.

CHICAGO - With each passing week, the Kentucky Derby picture becomes more scrambled. That would make the a perfect race for the season.

The uncertainty that governs the 3-year-old division as a whole descends Saturday upon Hawthorne Race Course, site of the Grade 2, $500,000 race that highlights the National Jockey Club's spring meeting. Thursday morning, 11 horses were entered in the derby, which is contested at 1 1/8 miles.