ARCADIA, Calif. - The 5-year-old mare Southern Oasis and the 6-year-old gelding Devil's Horn entered separate races Thursday at Santa Anita, but they will employ similar strategies in the two best races on the card. In both races, the horse to beat is the horse to catch.

ARCADIA, Calif. - All systems are on go for the 3-year-old debut of Empire Maker, who was one of the most talked-about members of his crop before he ever raced. Bobby Frankel trains Empire Maker, the likely favorite Friday at Santa Anita in the $75,000 Sham Stakes at 1 1/8 miles. Six are expected for the Sham, in which Empire Maker will start for the first time since a troubled third-place finish Nov. 30 in the Grade 2 Remsen at Aqueduct.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Christophe Clement's first trip down the Triple Crown trail has been delayed.

Clement, known primarily as a trainer of turf runners, had planned to run the promising 3-year-old Region of Merit, owned by Calumet Farm, in Saturday's Whirlaway Stakes at Aqueduct. But Clement was not satisfied with Region of Merit's Tuesday workout at Payson Park and canceled plans to ship the colt to New York.

ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Bill Delia has no illusions about Rio's Chase, who will meet five rivals in Thursday's feature race at Golden Gate Fields.

"He's just a cut under the real good horses," Delia said.

That's a double-edged sword for Delia, who turned Rio's Chase into a stakes winner last summer.

"That's a problem - to get a spot where he can get his confidence back," Delia said.

Mountaineer Race Track in West Virginia agreed on Tuesday morning to allow racing to resume, one day after canceling racing indefinitely to protest a horsemen's lawsuit over the track's simulcast signal.

Chuck Bailey, the president of the Mountaineer Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, said that trainers and riders agreed to participate in Tuesday night's card after a meeting with Mountaineer's racing office. Bailey said the racing office assured horsemen and jockeys that the racing surface would be safe, which had not been the case Sunday and Monday.

AUBURN, Wash. - The inaugural Washington Cup Day on Sept. 21 highlights the stakes schedule at Emerald Downs for its eighth summer meeting, a 92-day meet from April 19 through Sept. 22.

Washington Cup Day includes eight stakes, seven of them for Washington-breds, with a combined value of $400,000. The lone race not restricted to Washington-breds is the $100,000 Gottstein Futurity at 1 1/16 miles, the track's traditional championship race for 2-year-olds.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Jerry Bailey may be on a collision course with a tough decision after a lucrative weekend of stakes wins at Santa Anita.

Bailey, based in Florida at this time of year, won the two biggest races on the national calendar - Saturday's $400,000 Strub Stakes with Medaglia d'Oro and Sunday's $250,000 San Antonio Handicap with Congaree.

Both are prospects for the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 1 or the $6 million Dubai World Cup in the Middle East on March 29.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Harlan's Holiday stamped himself one of the favorites for the Grade 1 Donn Handicap on Feb. 22 after defeating a strong group of allowance rivals in his 2003 debut here Sunday.

"It looks like he's back to his old self," trainer Todd Pletcher said just moments after Harlan's Holiday crossed the wire 1 3/4 lengths in front of Bonus Pack in Sunday's fourth race.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Gary Contessa, the leading trainer at Aqueduct's inner-track meet, scratched all eight of his horses entered over the weekend after being informed by the stewards that one of his horses had tested positive for a banned substance.

The investigation is so much in the preliminary stages that the stewards couldn't tell Contessa which horse's test came back positive. Contessa said he was only told that a preliminary test performed on one of his horses turned up positive for a banned substance.

Mountaineer Park in West Virginia canceled live racing indefinitely Monday after the local horsemen's group filed a lawsuit accusing the track of sending its racing signal out of state illegally.

In a statement, Mountaineer said that it was canceling racing "until further notice while it attempts to clarify issues surroundings its contracts" with the Mountaineer Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, which represents horsemen at the track.