INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Stakes may be in Cyber Slew's future, but for now she seems best suited to races like Friday's seventh at Hollywood Park, a $38,000 optional claimer for California-breds.

After finishing in the top three in her first four starts, Cyber Slew was last in the California Cup Matron on Nov. 8.

She returned to finish second in an allowance race on Nov. 23, and faces a similar field in Friday's six-furlong race.

The runner-up finish last month helped to erase the disappointment from the California Cup, trainer Doug O'Neill said.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Mark Shuman and owner Michael Gill are off to a terrible start at Aqueduct's inner-track meet, with only one winner from 18 starters through Wednesday's card.

Like Magic could be the horse to change Shuman and Gill's fortunes in Friday's feature. The second-level allowance for fillies and mares is a wide-open six-furlong race. Like Magic is among 11 horses in the field, including the entry of Bel Baie and Lavender Lass.

NEW ORLEANS - Trainer Dallas Stewart has begun his Fair Grounds meet with 10 losing starters, a tough opening act, but nothing a two-race win streak wouldn't cure, and Stewart has live contenders in the eighth and ninth races here Friday.

PORTLAND, Ore. - An evenly matched field of seven will contest the top offering at Portland Meadows on Friday, a six-furlong race for $4,000 claimers.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Pocus Hocus, the 117-pound highweight for Saturday's $100,000 Ladies Handicap, will miss the race after working poorly, and two other nominees won't run because they are just getting over illnesses.

On Tuesday, Pocus Hocus, who won the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm on Nov. 1, worked five furlongs in a lethargic 1:06.06 over Belmont Park's training track. Jimmy Jerkens, who trains Pocus Hocus, said it was the second time in a row Pocus Hocus didn't work to his satisfaction.

Evangeline Downs will become the third track in Louisiana to operate a slots casino on Friday night when it opens a 1,627-machine facility at its future site in Opelousas, La. Racing operations will not move to Opelousas until 2005, but revenues from slots will supplement Evangeline's purses immediately, beginning with the track's Thoroughbred meet that opens April 1, 2004.

The 80,000 square-foot casino is opening three months earlier than expected. It is the country's first racino, or racetrack and casino, to be built from the ground up, according to officials with Evangeline.

ALBANY, Calif. - Despite the onslaught of winter rains, careful handling of the Lakeside Turf Course has allowed Golden Gate Fields racing secretary Tom Doutrich to continue to card turf races.

He'll use the turf for Friday's co-feature, a $40,000 starter allowance for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles. The race drew eight runners, six of whom scored their lone victories on the turf.

"This course doesn't seem to handle rain as well as some," Doutrich said.

ARCADIA, Calif. - With his racy chestnut color and a generous splash of white on his left rear ankle, Lion Heart is the kind of a colt who looks fast just standing still. He is not an imposing physical presence, but when he turns on the jets, he is startlingly fast, an equine version of San Diego Charger running back LaDainian Tomlinson.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Julie Krone has possible fractures of ribs and her sternum, and has severe soft tissue damage, her orthopedic surgeon said on Tuesday. The injuries will prevent Krone from riding this weekend at Hollywood Park, and jeopardizes her status for the Dec. 26 opening day of Santa Anita's winter meeting.

Krone, 40, was injured in an accident on Friday at Hollywood Park. The Hall of Fame rider visited on Tuesday with Dr. Tom Harris, a Del Mar, Calif.-based orthopedic surgeon who evaluated X-rays and an MRI scan conducted Monday.

NEW ORLEANS - Freefourinternet already ranked as one of the best grass horses stabled to Fair Grounds, but his talents evidently extend to the main track. Entered in a grass race last Sunday that was moved to dirt after heavy rain on Saturday, Freefourinternet made an impressive last-to-first run to win a high-end allowance race by a length.