ARCADIA, Calif. - Bare Necessities was third as a heavy favorite in the Grade 2 Bayakoa Handicap at Hollywood Park last month, a disappointing end to a 2003 campaign that included four stakes wins.

returns in Friday's $75,000 Paseana Handicap at Santa Anita, where she will be favored to win a race designed as a prep to the $250,000 Santa Maria Handicap on Feb. 16.

"I figured she'd need a race in between," trainer Wally Dollase said of the time between the Bayakoa and Santa Maria. "She will be dead fit."

ARCADIA, Calif. - The absence of Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Action This Day from Saturday's $150,000 Santa Catalina Stakes at Santa Anita has opened the race to a wider group of 3-year-olds, some contenders and some pretenders for the Triple Crown races.

The category that fits each of the eight probables for the Grade 2, 1 1/16-mile race will be better known after the Santa Catalina is run.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - After another parade of longshots visited Aqueduct's winner's circle Wednesday - and with Thursday's card canceled due to expected inclement weather - there will be a pick six carryover of $761,021 heading into Friday's scheduled card.

New York Racing Association officials believe this is third-largest pick-six carryover in the history of the wager in the state. There was a carryover of $817,345 heading into the Aug. 12, 1988, card at Saratoga and a carryover of $804,118 entering the Aug. 10, 1990, card, also at Saratoga.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Forced to cancel part or all of seven cards since Dec. 5, Aqueduct has added Wednesday, Jan. 21, to its live racing schedule. That day was originally scheduled as dark because Aqueduct will be open Monday, Martin Luther King Day, for live racing.

Aqueduct canceled its Thursday card because of a forecast that called for cold temperatures and snow. It was the fifth full card scrapped since the inner track opened. Two other cards were canceled after races had been run.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Several months ago, Bill Cesare was entertaining offers to sell Second of June for a nice chunk of change, but the terms of a couple of proposals were not to his satisfaction, and a deal never got done.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It's all about the grass. While racetracks in more wintry climates are still several frigid months from hosting turf racing again, Gulfstream Park on Friday will flaunt its tropical allure by carding its two best races on grass.

The slightly richer of the pair, the eighth race, could have Cat's Glow as a deserving favorite, while the supporting feature, the sixth, appears to be a more a wide-open affair, in which more than half the field appears capable of winning.

Claiming horses are viewed by some horseplayers as being outclassed when matched against allowance runners. In Friday's $32,000 ninth race at Fair Grounds, four claimers may prove their doubters wrong.

The ninth race, an optional claiming race at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf, offers an even balance of four two-other-than allowance horses and four horses running for a $40,000 tag.

Churchill Downs on Wednesday released revised and enriched stakes schedules for the 2004 spring and fall meets.

Purses for the 45 stakes will total a record $9,375,000, up from the estimated $8,575,000 paid out last year. Churchill officials recently announced the track will no longer host the $100,000 Hard Scuffle Steeplechase, but the new schedules include five new races and five races with increased purses.

In a move that will enable Portland Meadows to balance its purse account, the track was allocated up to $183,000 - the amount purses were overpaid as of Jan. 1 - from the Oregon Racing Commission on Wednesday.

The money, to be granted when the Portland Meadows meet ends in April, will come from revenue the commission derives from interstate account-wagering hubs located in the state. This is the first year that the track will receive funding from that revenue.

PORTLAND, Ore. - The $6,000 Directors Handicap for older Quarter Horses at 350 yards, which was postponed a week ago because of frigid weather, will head a nine-race card when racing resumes at Portland Meadows on Friday.