NEW ORLEANS - The names jump off the overnight list of entries for Fair Grounds's ninth race Thursday: Histoire Sainte, Quick Tip, Lady of Peace. This is an allowance race?

Add to that blockbuster trio Spectacular Dove, a winner of four straight turf races, the solid mare Soccory, and Attico, a promising 3-year-old last season who now tests older horses.

"It looks a lot more like a $100,000 stakes than an allowance race," said an incredulous Mike Stidham, Attico's trainer. "This is just like the field that ran in the last stakes."

ALBANY, Calif. - Thursday's co-features at Golden Gate Fields have the feel of stakes races.

The day's feature, a one-mile allowance race, includes four contestants from the New Year's Day Lafayette Handicap, including the winner, I'madrifter.

I'madrifter scored a wire-to-wire victory in the Lafayette, just as he had one year earlier on New Year's Day 2002. I'madrifter, though, went winless the rest of 2002.

The question facing his six opponents Thursday is if anyone can soften him up.

ARCADIA, Calif. - A massive investment in promotions for Saturday's Sunshine Millions programs at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita led to sizeable gains in attendance and handle at both tracks over the corresponding days in 2002.

Of the two venues, Santa Anita had the highest all-sources handle - $19,543,272 on a 10-race program, a 39 percent increase over the the final Saturday in January last year, when Santa Anita handled $14,045,922.

NEW ORLEANS - The Louisiana State Racing Commission has launched an investigation into a race run at Delta Downs, an official for the commission confirmed Monday.

The official wouldn't offer any details on the investigation, other than to confirm it involved the ninth race on Jan. 23. The race was one of two trials held at Delta that evening for the $30,000 Graduation Futurity, the final of which is to be contested on Feb. 15. The Futurity was open only to horses who were maidens as of Jan. 1.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. said Best of the Rest came out of his victory in Saturday's $1 million Sunshine Classic "110 percent" and that the 8-year-old could make his next start in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap on Feb. 22.

"We'll see how he's doing and take a look at the Donn," Plesa said. "He has never won a Grade 1 race; the Donn is a Grade 1 and fits well on the time schedule."

Best of the Rest rallied from just off the pace to win the Classic, the cornerstone of the inaugural Sunshine Millions program.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - There are a lot of basic handicapping principles that point to Red Sea as the winner of Wednesday's feature race at Gulfstream Park, a $46,000 allowance race that drew a stakes-caliber field going about 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

Red Sea is in peak form, takes a drop in class, and is a closer in a race in which most of the major contenders are speed types. He also excels at the distance and gets Eclipse Award finalist Edgar Prado in the saddle for the first time on Wednesday.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Things were a little slow to start at the Jeff Mullins stable on Sunday morning, a day after Captain Squire won the $250,000 Sunshine Millions Sprint at Santa Anita.

Of course, the training schedule was met, even with the track closing at 8:30 a.m. to accommodate the day's early first post, but several of the people involved with Captain Squire's win were not moving too quickly after a celebratory night on the town on Saturday.

"The horse feels better than we do," said Amy Mullins, Jeff's wife, exercise rider, and assistant trainer.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Hall of Fame jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. is one winner away from the 9,500th of his career, and has five chances to achieve the milestone on Wednesday's eight-race program at Santa Anita.

"I know about it," he said after the races on Sunday, with a hint of frustration in his voice. "I'm trying."

The world's all-time leading rider, Pincay was winless on Sunday. He won the 9,499th winner of his career aboard Total Limit in Saturday's first race.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The weather forecast for Wednesday calls for a wintry mix of morning precipitation, which would be just fine with several sharp sprinters entered in Aqueduct's six-furlong feature.

The $47,000 third-level allowance drew a field of seven older males, and several have run quite well on a wet inner track.

Pop Rocks, part of a formidable Scott Lake-trained entry along with Reason to Hail, posted a front-running triumph in the mud earlier at the meet, and looks to be the main speed with Luis Chavez aboard.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The inside speed bias of Saturday was gone, but that didn't stop Cyber Secret from scoring a gate-to-wire victory in the $75,000 Busanda Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct.

Scratched earlier this month from the Ruthless Stakes and from a subsequent allowance race because of wet tracks, Cyber Secret was starting for the first time in 78 days, and was also stretching out from sprints for the first time.