HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Crafty Shaw can give Oaklawn Park president Charles Cella his first stakes win at this track if he successfully defends his title in the Grade 3, $100,000 Essex Handicap on Saturday.

The 1 1/16-mile race is one of two local preps for the Grade 2, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap on April 5, and it drew a field of 10 older horses, including Colorful Tour, who is chasing his fourth straight win; Premeditation, who has won his last two dirt starts; and Ask the Lord, third last out in the $100,000 Maxxam Gold Cup at Sam Houston Race Park.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Bobby Frankel swept the first two positions in Thursday's $81,900 San Marino Handicap with Requete and Sumitas.

The victory was the first stakes win in the five-race career of Requete. Sent off as the favorite in the restricted San Marino, Requete closed from fifth on the backstretch to reach contention on the final turn. Ridden by Jose Valvidia Jr., Requete ($6.20) rallied four wide in the stretch and was driven to the finish to reach the front.

The 4-year-old Requete ran 1 1/4 miles on turf in 2:00.92.

ALBANY, Calif. - A group of about six Golden Gate Fields jockeys met with the stewards Monday to voice their opinion that Russell Baze, the track's leading rider, is receiving special treatment.

The incident that prompted the meeting occurred in Sunday's first race, a one-mile $8,000 maiden claimer for 3-year-olds, which Baze won aboard Quick Release.

In the race, Baze made a move for a hole along the rail and his mount brushed with Consent Agenda, ridden by A.L. Castanon. Castanon took up sharply and finished last.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Atswhatimtalknbout was only a maiden winner when he was included among the 23 betting interests in the first pool of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager last weekend.

When the pool closed he was 28-1, a shorter price than several more accomplished horses. The faith of many of those bettors was rewarded on Thursday when Atswhatimtalknbout beat winners for the first time in an allowance race over 1 1/16 miles.

OLDSMAR Fla. - Coach Jimi Lee, who has won two of his four starts, including the Hoosier Juvenile Stakes at Hoosier Park, will be given his first test around two turns on Saturday when he tops a field of 11 3-year-olds in the $50,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes. The race is Tampa Bay Downs's traditional prep for the Grade 3, $250,000 Tampa Bay Derby.

The Davis will share the spotlight with the $50,000 Suncoast Stakes for 3-year-old fillies as the two 1 1/16-mile stakes highlight an 11-race program.

Most any owner or trainer would like to win a little stakes such as the Valdale, a $50,000 race scheduled for Saturday at Turfway Park.

But the way things have been going lately at the Florence, Ky., track, horsemen would be ecstatic merely to have the opportunity to run a horse in the Valdale.

When the race was redrawn after it was postponed from Presidents Day to Saturday, the General George Handicap remained a 12-horse race. Not all the horses are the same, however.

Gone is Affirmed Success, the probable favorite, who will remain in New York to await the Toboggan Handicap on March 15. In his place is Peeping Tom, who won the 2001 General George and showed signs of reviving his career by winning an allowance race at Aqueduct earlier this month.

ALBANY, Calif. - Debonair Joe, who went from a $12,500 claimer to Grade 1 winner in the space of two months last year, wasn't originally going to run in Saturday's $100,000 Ken Maddy Sprint at Golden Gate Fields. But he's here and is a force to be reckoned with when five older Cal-bred sprinters compete in the six-furlong Maddy.

NEW ORLEANS - The plane that transports Kafwain to Fair Grounds for the March 9 Louisiana Derby also will carry Atlantic Ocean, who will run the day before in the $350,000 Fair Grounds Oaks.

Baffert confirmed Thursday his plans to ship the two 3-year-olds to Fair Grounds. As to why he chose the Louisiana Derby over the March 16 San Felipe Stakes, Baffert said, "Well, do the math. They're both a mile and a sixteenth. The [Louisiana Derby] is $750,000 and the [San Felipe] here is $250,000."

NEW ORLEANS - It hasn't been the smoothest trip, but Salty Farma has gotten to the point in her career where she is ready to win a stakes race. It's just not on the surface that everyone expected.

Salty Farma raced on turf almost all last year, but trainer Dave Kassen switched her to dirt in a Jan. 25 allowance race and Salty Farma won by more than eight lengths, running the fastest mile of this meet, 1:36.64. If Salty Farma reproduces that race, the other eight horses entered in Saturday's $150,000 Chou Croute Handicap are running for second.