ALBANY, Calif. - Friday's $75,000-added Forty-Niner Handicap at Golden Gate Fields is so competitive it's difficult to pin down a favorite.

Daunting and Truly a Judge are the highweights at 117 pounds for the 1 1/16-mile race, which will match 13 hard-trying older runners.

Daunting has won 4 of 7 starts, earning five triple-digit Beyers since being claimed in March for $16,000 by trainer Mark Glatt. Truly a Judge has run second in two stakes and was third in the Grade 3 Seabiscuit Handicap at Bay Meadows last spring.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Lethal Grande carries high weight of 124 pounds, including regular rider Danny Boag, when he takes on six challengers in Friday's $10,000 Thanksgiving Handicap at Portland Meadows.

The 4-year-old Lethal Grande, who races for Michael Pollowitz, is coming off back-to-back wins in the Inaugural Handicap on Oct. 18 and an allowance race on Nov. 8, both at six furlongs. He has won 5 of 8 career outings here and finished a close second to Poker Brad in last season's Portland Meadows Mile.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Aptly named Big Cheque will seek her fourth consecutive winning payday Friday at Woodbine in an $80,000 optional claimer for fillies and mares.

Big Cheque, a speedy 3-year-old who owned by Bruno Schickedanz and trained by Abraham Katryan, has won 4 of 6 starts this year. She was sidelined with a foot injury after winning her season opener on March 23, and did not make her second start of the meeting until Aug. 28. Big Cheque blew the break that day, but still finished fourth.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainer Wally Dollase will go for a record fifth win - and third straight - in the $400,000 Citation Handicap on Saturday, when Irish Warrior starts in the Grade 2 turf race at Hollywood Park.

Considering Dollase's philosophy toward acquiring horses, it should not be a surprise that his stable excels in stakes such as the Citation, run over 1 1/16 miles. Dollase often buys European imports best-suited to racing on turf, and seeks the same horses at sales in this country.

"I like middle-distance grass horses," Dollase said.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Considering her pedigree and the fact she breezed on the turf instead of the dirt during Keeneland's sale of 2-year-olds in training in April, there was little doubt Cousineau's future was as a turf horse. But instead of being bought by European connections, Cousineau was purchased by trainer Craig Dollase and owner Paul Reddam, who decided to keep her in the United States, where the emphasis for 2-year-olds is on dirt racing.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - For one of the few times this year, Bobby Frankel will be the hunter instead of the hunted in a Grade 1 stakes.

Frankel, who already this year has won a single-year North American record 24 Grade 1 races, has shipped the 3-year-old Midas Eyes to New York for Saturday's $350,000 Cigar Mile, where he will take on the Bob Baffert-trained Congaree in the last Grade 1 race of the year in New York.

MIAMI - Trainer Ralph Ziadie confirmed Wednesday that he has earmarked the $100,000 What a Pleasure Stakes here Dec. 13 for what would be Silver Wagon's first start since his victory in the Grade 1 Hopeful on Aug. 30.

"Right now, I'd say there's about a 95-percent chance he'll run in the What a Pleasure, although I won't make up my mind for sure until after his final work the week of the race," said Ziadie. "If he runs, Jerry Bailey will be here to ride him."

Bailey rode Silver Wagon to victory in the Hopeful.

The New York Racing Association has named Kenneth T. Cook as its new director of security, effective Dec. 8.

Cook, 53, previously worked with the New York State Police in several capacities, including investigator and the captain in the bureau of criminal investigation. He most recently served as director of public safety solutions for a private consulting firm.

Cook was awarded eight superintendent's commendations during his service with the state police, as well as two certificates of appreciation from the Drug Enforcement Agency.

NEW ORLEANS - About six years ago, trainer Richard Small bought a house near Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, but when he split with the owner Robert Meyerhoff shortly afterward, Small stopped wintering at Fair Grounds.

Now, Small is back with Meyerhoff - and back in his house.

"When I stopped training for Mr. Meyerhoff, I was going to come down here," Small said. "But I had mostly my own horses, and they didn't have conditions. They weren't good enough for stakes, but they were too good to run in claiming races. I wouldn't have had any spots to run them."

Judiths Wild Rush, an undefeated colt who owns the highest two-turn Beyer Speed Figure for a 2-year-old in North America this year, is the early favorite for the $1 million Delta Jackpot at Delta Downs in Vinton, La., on Dec. 5.

The 1 1/16-mile race for 2-year-olds had five other probables as of Wednesday morning: the Bob Baffert-trained Consecrate, who was fifth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile; Stolen Time, winner of the $100,000 Foolish Pleasure at Calder; Perfect Moon, winner of the Grade 2 Best Pal at Del Mar; the undefeated Joe Six Pack; and Mr. Jester.