ARCADIA, Calif. - So Urgent is the lone speed in the seventh-race feature Thursday at Santa Anita. Problem is, everyone knows it. A field of five entered the 6 1/2-furlong sprint, a three-other-than optional $100,000 claimer that will have chalk bettors licking their chops.

Once upon a time, So Urgent might have toyed with those he faces Thursday. Although the 5-year-old So Urgent is two summers removed from the prime of his career, he still figures to start at a short price over Elaborate, Waingarth, Ride and Shine, and R. Baggio. The race sets up perfectly for the favorite.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Hot Springs is "Beau's" town. A perfect 4 for 4 at Oaklawn Park, top regional sprinter Beau's Town will be an odds-on favorite Thursday, when he goes after the meet's biggest prize for older sprinters in the Grade 3, $150,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap.

Lake Lady has the class to win Thursday's $37,000 allowance feature at Lone Star Park, but a more important requirement is a liking for the turf.

A multiple-stakes-winning daughter of Salt Lake, she will be making her turf debut in the one-mile race, which is for fillies and mares who have not won an allowance or stakes this year.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Devastated.

That was the word trainer Kathleen O'Connell used to describe her feelings following Saturday's Grade 1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. In that race, the O'Connell-trained Ivanavinalot nearly got knocked to the ground leaving the gate. Ivanavinalot was virtually eased at the finish by jockey Mark Guidry.

Ivanavinalot was slammed by Elloluv, ridden by Robby Albarado, and steadied sharply at the start of the Ashland. Ivanavinalot rushed four wide into the clubhouse turn once she recovered, and never got into the race.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Ron Ellis will put blinkers on Atswhatimtalknbout when the colt resumes serious training next week at Churchill Downs, and if the blinkers produce the desired result in morning workouts, the colt will wear them for the first time in a race when he starts in the Kentucky Derby.

Atswhatimtalknbout finished fourth as the 3-2 favorite Saturday in the Santa Anita Derby, won by Buddy Gil. Tuesday, Ellis was still puzzled by Atswhatimtalknbout's performance.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - With the quick Great Notion set to pass the Grade 2, $500,000 Arkansas Derby on Saturday in favor of the Grade 1, $750,000 Blue Grass at Keeneland the same afternoon, the pace of the Oaklawn Park race could be controlled by Cat Genius.

Great Notion blew out about a quarter of a mile for the Blue Grass on Monday, and was to fly to Kentucky on Tuesday, said trainer Darrin Miller. He will be ridden by Larry Melancon.

"We gave him a little stretch down the lane," said Miller.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Just who was it that said racehorses will go hot and cold on a trainer?

Why, Carl Nafzger did, quite a few years ago.

"That's why I never get too high or too low," Nafzger said. "Soon as you do one or the other, things will turn right around on you."

Indeed, over the last five-plus months, Nafzger has personified the ups and downs of training horses. Last fall at Churchill Downs, Nafzger's horses earned a meet-high $683,659 by winning 14 races from 40 starts. People were saying he couldn't miss.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Despite a cruel joke from Mother Nature in the form of a snowstorm that dumped upward of four inches on the New York City area Monday, six stakes horses from the barns of California-based trainers Bobby Frankel and Bob Baffert were still scheduled to arrive Tuesday in New York on separate flights.

ARCADIA, Calif. - A record one-day carryover of $732,097 resulted in a pick six pool of almost $3 million Sunday at Santa Anita. There were three winning tickets, each worth $661,283.20

Favorites were beaten in all six races on Saturday. On Sunday, bettors added $2,240,313 to the pool, but again had no help from the favorites, who were shut out.

According to track officials, the winning tickets Sunday were bought at Los Alamitos, and through the New York Racing Association and Ohio hubs.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Medaglia d'Oro created a $398,612 minus show pool at Oaklawn Park on Saturday when he won the Grade 2, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap. The hit came about an hour and a half after Azeri accounted for a $147,094 minus show pool with her win in the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap earlier in the card at Oaklawn.

Of the $1,593,676 bet to show on the Oaklawn Handicap, approximately $1.4 million was on Medaglia d'Oro. He paid $2.20 across the board. Azeri paid $2.80, $2.20, and $2.20.