LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Two weeks from Friday everyone involved in Kentucky racing will be acutely aware that spring has finally arrived. On that day, April 4, Keeneland begins its spring meet.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer Darrin Miller had considered passing Saturday's $125,000 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park with Great Notion, but after the colt trained sharply Wednesday, he will be entered in the race, the final local prep for the Grade 2, $500,000 Arkansas Derby.

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - A solid field is shaping up for the richest race in Sunland Park history, the $500,000 WinStar Derby March 30. Formerly known as the Riley Allison Derby, the race is being sponsored by WinStar Farm this year. WinStar partner Bill Casner worked as an exercise rider at Sunland while attending the University of Texas, El Paso.

Delta Downs will close out its Thoroughbred meet this weekend with two six-figure stakes races: the $100,000 Goddess for fillies and mares at one mile Saturday, and the $150,000 Gulf Coast Classic at 1 1/16 miles Sunday.

Delta's purses reached record levels this meet with help from slot machines that were installed in February 2002. This meet, purses rose from $160,000 a day in November to $230,000 by February.

Grand Island, Neb. - Leading trainer David Anderson put on an exhibition this past weekend, becoming the first trainer at this track to saddle four winners on consecutive days.

Along the way, he also won eight straight races in which he had a starter, believed to be a local record according to track officials.

The string started Sunday, March 9, when Calling Ticket rolled to victory as the 6-5 favorite over allowance company in the day's featured allowance race.

The purse for the Indian Maid Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for older fillies and mares Oct. 11, was recently increased from $100,000 to $150,000 and is now part of the Breeders' Cup special stakes program. The race's new name will be the Indian Maid Breeders' Cup Handicap.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Composure, the top 3-year-old filly in California this year, has been retired because of a cracked sesamoid in her right foreleg, trainer Bob Baffert said on Wednesday.

The injury ends a career that showed considerable promise.

won two Grade 1 races at this meeting - the Las Virgenes Stakes and Santa Anita Oaks - and was considered a leading candidate for the Kentucky Oaks in May. The injury was diagnosed earlier this week, Baffert said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For nearly as long as he can remember, trainer Greg Foley has been getting up early in the morning to tend to racehorses.

"I was probably nine or 10 when I first started grooming horses for my dad," said Foley, whose father, Dravo, and sister, Vickie, also are active trainers on the Kentucky circuit. "I got my first license in 1978 or 1979."

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Volponi, the upset winner of last October's Breeders' Cup Classic, took the first steps toward defending that title Tuesday with a three-furlong workout clocked in 37.64 seconds over Belmont Park's training track.

The work, the eighth fastest of 13 recorded at the distance and conducted over a fast track, was Volponi's first since his 43-1 Classic victory on Oct. 26 at Arlington Park. "He went well, steady,'' trainer Phil Johnson said. "He actually went a quarter a few days ago to get his attention.''

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - On paper, Thursday's $38,000 feature at Gulfstream Park looks like a wide-open race. But anybody who saw Powerful Appeal's last performance will have little trouble deciding who to wager on in this second-level allowance race, scheduled for nine furlongs on the turf.