It's not every day a horse fires a 112 Beyer Speed Figure at Delta Downs, but that's what Oak Hall did in his last start Feb. 1. That number makes him look awfully imposing Sunday night in the $150,000 Gold Cup for statebreds, which is the second richest race of the Delta meet behind the $500,000 Delta Jackpot.

Oak Hall will face six others in the one-mile Gold Cup, including Zarb's Luck, the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Sprint winner who finished second to Oak Hall on Feb. 1 in the $75,000 Bayou State, which was restricted to horses bred in Louisiana.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The focus will be almost entirely on Congaree in Saturday's $1 million Santa Anita Handicap.

Already at this meeting, Congaree has scored convincing wins in the San Pasqual and San Antonio handicaps. Jerry Bailey, a major part of the horse's three-stakes winning streak, will ride, after having defected to Medaglia d'Oro and then regaining the mount. And, Congaree is unbeaten in his career at Santa Anita, a winning streak he could stretch to five in the Big Cap, the richest race of the meeting.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The field for Saturday's $200,000 San Rafael Stakes changed markedly just before entry time on Thursday morning at Santa Anita, but the race scenario remains the same, with likely favorite Our Bobby V. forced to prove he can sit off a determined front-runner and still win.

PHOENIX, Ariz. - Trainer Jack Van Berg is hoping a change of scenery and blinkers off can snap Hostility back to life in Saturday's $35,000 Cactus Cup Handicap at Turf Paradise. The 6 1/2-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies drew a field of eight.

Despite a string of poor efforts at Santa Anita, Hostility may go favored in the Cactus Cup as the 121-pound co-highweight. A Devil His Due filly, Hostility has shown ability on the tougher Southern California circuit, but her last three races have resulted in two eighth-place finishes and a sixth.

ALBANY, Calif. - Saturday's $60,000-added San Carlos Handicap at one mile at Golden Gate Fields has drawn 13 entries. Because it is a stakes race, 12 horses will be allowed to run. The normal limit for a one-mile race is 10.

The field includes four runners from the barn of leading trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Kudos or Pleasantly Perfect could give trainer Richard Mandella his third win in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on Saturday. From his perspective, he should be gunning for a fourth.

Mandella swept the first three positions in 1997 with Siphon, Sandpit, and Gentlemen. The following year, he sent out Malek, who upset the heavily favored Gentlemen in a small field.

The race that still irks Mandella came in 1995, when the mighty Best Pal fell a head short of catching the front-running longshot Urgent Request.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Time is running down on Good Journey. A 7-year-old, he is favored to win the most prestigious mile turf race of winter on Saturday at Santa Anita, but he will be long-retired by fall, when the Breeders' Cup Mile is run on the same course.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Sitting in the jockeys' room about an hour before Thursday's first race at Santa Anita, Laffit Pincay Jr. was grooving to the tunes on a CD, his eyes closed, rocking back and forth contentedly.

"I love Glen Campbell," he said, when asked what he was listening to. "'By the Time I Get to Phoenix.' I love that song."

For the first time in his life, Pincay was showing his age.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - When Jerry Bailey made the logical decision to ride Congaree in Saturday's $1 million Big Cap, trainer Steve Flint was temporarily left without a jockey for his Allamerican Bertie in the $200,000 Rampart Handicap here that same afternoon. So Flint immediately reached out for the hottest rider on the grounds, tabbing John Velazquez to pinch hit for Bailey in the Grade 2 Rampart.

"You never like to lose a rider like Jerry Bailey but Johnny's been winning everything here the past couple of weeks and I have an awful lot of confidence in him," Flint said.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - She is the class of the field, the speed of the race, and will have the hottest rider on the grounds in the saddle. Those three factors should add up to another easy victory for Allamerican Bertie in Saturday's $200,000 Rampart Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

"I guess on paper you'd have to say she looks pretty good," said Steve Flint, Allamerican Bertie's trainer. "But she's still got to go out and do it. Although if she takes care of business and runs her race, I guess she'll be real tough to beat."