SAN MATEO, Calif. - The daily average handle at Golden Gate Fields slipped a bit for the 2002-2003 season, although the gross handle showed an increase for the 104-day meeting, thanks to three additional days of live racing.

Total handle for the meet that ended March 30 increased 2.7 percent to $483 million, compared to last year's $470 million. The overall average daily handle was down 0.3 percent from $4,658,000 to $4,644,000. Advance deposit wagers nearly offset minor declines at the track, at Northern California satellite facilities, and at other sites outside California.

GROVE CITY, Ohio - Saturday's $35,000 Rollin on Over Stakes at Beulah Park, which attracted 11 Ohio-bred 3-year-olds, is a wide-open race.

Mercer's Cool Cat is the only stakes winner in the six-furlong race and has the best qualifications to take the Rollin on Over, but Woodburner and Clever Jimmy C both have run recently, unlike Mercer's Cool Cat.

Stormin Oedy can't do the job by himself. A late-running sprinter who sometimes falls double-digit lengths back in the first quarter-mile of his races, Stormin Oedy can win only if the front-runners tire. In Saturday's $75,000 Fire Plug Stakes at Pimlico, Stormin Oedy should get the fast and contested pace he needs to make his rally successful.

PHOENIX - After being claimed for $12,500 last summer at Fairplex, Debonair Joe began an ascent that brought him into the ranks of the sprinting elite on the West Coast.

He has found staying there a tougher matter, however, so now Debonair Joe ships to Turf Paradise for Saturday's $23,000 Zany Tactics in an effort to get back on track. The six-furlong stakes has lured a field of eight, but Debonair Joe figures dominant.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - Defending champion Tate's Way faces Rub in a field of eight entered for Saturday's $30,000-guaranteed Dowd Mile Handicap, the local prep for the $100,000 Bosselman/Gus Fonner Handicap April 26.

Rub returns to Nebraska from Turf Paradise in much the same way he arrived last year, looking for his first victory of the season. A year ago he made his local debut in the Pepsi Sprint and ran down Leaping Plum to win. His next race came in the Dowd and he failed to fire, finishing fourth. He then ran an outstanding race in the Bosselman to be third, beaten a neck.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Man Among Men brings an intriguing record into the Grade 2, $500,000 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park Saturday - he has defeated both Empire Maker, the favorite in the Wood Memorial, and Peace Rules, the favorite in the Blue Grass.

The company lines are enough to make class handicappers salivate. Last year, Man Among Men beat Peace Rules by a head in the $52,000 Pinjara on turf at Santa Anita.

Following that race, Peace Rules won three straight stakes races, including the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jerry Bailey traveled the country this winter seeking the perfect Kentucky Derby mount. In reality, Bailey had found his ideal Derby companion last fall.

That's when he was first introduced to Empire Maker, a well-bred, good-looking colt from the connections of Juddmonte Farms and trainer Bobby Frankel. With a strong showing in Saturday's $750,000 Wood Memorial, Empire Maker will head to Louisville as the favorite for the May 3 Kentucky Derby.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Michael Tabor is one of the blessed few, a man fortunate enough to have smelled Kentucky Derby roses in his lifetime.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Yesss, the leading local hope for the $35,000 Portland Meadows Mile April 27, will tune up for the big race in Saturday's feature, an open allowance race at a mile.

Yesss, a 5-year-old son of Abstract and the good producer Sushi Q., is unbeaten in three tries around two turns at this meeting, having won a pair of one-mile allowances and the nine-furlong William Kyne Stakes. The Kyne was his fifth local stakes win, and the last three of those have come in routes.

CALGARY, Alberta - Business was anything but brisk at the entry box Wednesday morning, and racing secretary Barry McGrath could come up with only seven races for Saturday when a pair of races for fillies and mares failed to fill.

When 14 entered a maiden special weight sprint, McGrath split the race, and agent Herb Ollive had a smile on his face after getting his rider Dave Wilson on the favorite in both six-furlong races, which are races 2 and 3.