NEW ORLEANS - Two things about Sir Cherokee's form jump off the page. The first happened last spring: a win in the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby at 55-1. The other is Sir Cherokee's work Tuesday at Oaklawn Park, where the colt breezed six furlongs in 1:11.40, faster than many races there.

The breeze came just five days before Sir Cherokee is to start in Sunday's $500,000 New Orleans Handicap, his biggest race since the Arkansas Derby, but trainer Michael Tomlinson said he believes his horse had the necessary backbone to work so swiftly.

NEW ORLEANS - It might be at the wrong distance, perhaps even on the wrong surface, but Friday's featured ninth race is the spot for Gimme an A.

His trainer, Jeff Thornbury, thinks might turn out to be a decent turf route horse. The Friday race is at six furlongs on dirt, but that might not get Gimme an A beat. A late-starting 5-year-old gelding, Gimme an A has made his last four starts on grass, but he was a clear second in his career debut - another dirt sprint - to a nice Kentucky-based horse named Founding Chairman.

NEW ORLEANS - A flight Wednesday morning that was to have ferried Funny Cide and Seattle Fitz from Miami to New Orleans for the New Orleans Handicap turned back shortly after takeoff because of mechanical problems.

Kiaran McLaughlin, the trainer of Seattle Fitz, said the plane was in the air a short time before encountering problems with its hydraulic system. It landed without incident, and the horses on board suffered no ill effects.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Private Emblem, who remained perfect at Oaklawn with his win in the Grade 3 Essex Handicap last Saturday, will skip next month's Razorback and train up to the Grade 2, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap on April 3, said his trainer, Steve Asmussen.

"It's the same formula that won the Arkansas Derby for him," he said.

Private Emblem won a division of the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn in 2002, but skipped the next stakes in the track's 3-year-old series, the Rebel, and waited for the Arkansas Derby. The win was one of four he has racked up here.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Northern Baquero required eight starts to graduate from the maiden ranks against modest $6,250 company at Portland Meadows in January, and ran a nonthreatening third against $8,000 nonwinners-of-two in his first try against winners on Feb. 7. Trainer Eulia Bischoff was only being candid, then, when she said her 3-year-old's chances in last Saturday's 1 1/16-mile McFadden Memorial were "about zero."

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - A field of eight to 10 is expected when entries are drawn Thursday morning for Sunday's $100,000-added , Sunland's key prep for the $500,000 WinStar Derby, to be run March 28. Among the WinStar hopefuls is a mix of ship-ins looking for an easy payday and a group of locals yet to sort themselves out.

If Wacky Patty, a Grade 3-winning sprinter, starts in Friday's $50,000 Green Oaks at Delta Downs, she is the horse to beat. But Mark Cornett, one of her owners, said he plans to instead run her in the Grade 3, $100,000 Forward Gal at Gulfstream Park on March 13.

In the long term, Wacky Patty is a hopeful for the Grade 1 Prioress at Belmont Park in July.

Lone Star Park has added two Texas-bred stakes for 2-year-olds to its fall meeting, which is highlighted by the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships on Oct. 30.

The $50,000 Mocha Express for colts and geldings and the $50,000 Honeysuckle Rose for fillies will be run Oct. 23. The races will be run over 6 1/2 furlongs and are part of the annual Stars of Texas Day program at Lone Star. Other stakes for Texas-breds on that program include the $100,000 Assault and the $75,000 Allen Bogan Memorial.

Lone Star's fall season will run from Oct. 1-31.

Defending national champion Quarter Horse trainer Paul Jones is prepared for a promising weekend at Los Alamitos, with eight of the 10 finalists in the Grade 1, $200,000 Los Alamitos Winter Derby on Friday night and the two fastest qualifiers to the Grade 1, $200,000 Los Alamitos Winter Championship on Saturday night.

While Jones dominates the Winter Derby, the year's first Grade 1 derby, he may not have the race favorite, or even the top two choices.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin will not run Volga in Saturday's Grade 3 The Very One Handicap. But before any of the opposition breathes a sigh of relief, they should be forewarned that McLaughlin has a pretty talented replacement in Binya, a German-bred mare who dominated third-level allowance company in her U.S. debut here on Jan. 16.