ARCADIA, Calif. - Speed meets speed Sunday at Santa Anita, where 3-year-old sprinters gun six furlongs in the Grade 3 San Miguel Stakes. It's a hot race in which handicappers might anticipate a pace meltdown and support a stretch runner. There's just one question - is there a genuine closer in the six-horse field?

NEW ORLEANS - The two horses who won the first two sprint stakes of the Fair Grounds meet square off Sunday in the $75,000 Colonel Power Handicap. But they aren't the story. What's worth paying to see is whether or not Bonapaw, the best sprinter at Fair Grounds, will win a stakes race less than two weeks after returning from a month of farm rest.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Six Oregon-breds vie in Sunday's feature at Portland Meadows, a six-furlong race for 4-year-olds and upward who have never won three races.

Three of Sunday's entrants

ran in the Oregon Sprint Cham-pionship here on Dec. 14: Tee Tommy Slew, Stetson R.L., and Ransome Road. Tee Tommy Slew finished three lengths behind the victorious Rose City Special in fourth, Stetson R.L. finished a neck back in fifth, and Ransome Road finished another 2 1/2 lengths away in seventh after contesting the early fractions.

SEATTLE - Playfair Race Course in Spokane, which has not operated since 2000, was granted a 40-day season in 2003, from Sept. 26 through Dec. 21, at a meeting here of the Washington Horse Racing Commission on Thursday.

With racing dates in hand, Playfair can begin offering simulcast wagering as soon as the facility is ready and tote machines have been installed. Eric Nelson, the Las Vegas-based businessman who last October was licensed to operate Playfair, said he hopes to begin conducting simulcasting in early February.

ETOBICOKE Ontario - The Woodbine backstretch area will not reopen until Feb. 8, a week later than originally scheduled, because of delays in the off-season barn renovation program.

The renovations, undertaken in the wake of a fire that killed 32 horses here Aug. 4, include new wiring and lighting for 24 existing barns.

Barn 1, the first barn being renovated, is scheduled to be ready

A new sale of 2-year-olds in training to be held at Evangeline Downs in Lafayette, La., on March 16 has led officials to create the $75,000-estimated Evangeline Sales Stakes. The new race will replace the Bayouland Sales Stakes and is one of several changes made to an 11-race, $500,000 stakes schedule that was released Friday.

In addition to the Evangeline Sales Stakes, the track has added two $35,000 stakes for 3-year-old statebreds at a mile - one for colts and geldings May 17, and the other for fillies June 7 - and increased the value of five stakes $5,000 each to $35,000.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Something will have to give next Saturday, when a pair of undefeated colts, Added Edge and Funny Cide, square off in the Holy Bull Stakes. The Grade 3 Holy Bull is the first major race for 3-year-olds here this winter and a major stepping-stone to the Grade 1 Fountain of Youth Stakes on Feb. 15.

Added Edge is perhaps the better known of the two undefeated youngsters, after shipping down from his Woodbine base and scoring an easy 2 1/4-length victory in Aqueduct's Grade 3 Nashua Stakes in his 2-year-old finale.

ARCADIA, Calif. - For the last 18 months, there has been as much as hype as substance surrounding the career of Mayakovsky.

His smashing debut win at Saratoga in July of 2001 was followed by only one more start that year, a second in the Hopeful Stakes. In four starts last year, Mayakovsky managed only one victory - the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct in March.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The old guy still has it.

Grade 1 winner Affirmed Success, a 9-year-old racing for the first time since July, won Friday's allowance feature by one length over Late Carson.

Under Richard Migliore, Affirmed Success battled for the lead with Storm Commander for a half-mile while racing on the rail. Affirmed Success held a narrow advantage as the five-horse field turned for home and was able to hold off a challenge from Late Carson during the stretch run.

NEW ORLEANS - There were about 30 claims filed for Talknow when he dropped into a $5,000 claiming race Oct. 27, 2001, at Arlington Park. Trainer Tom Tomillo dropped one of the claiming slips for his son, Tom Jr., and Tom's partner, Emilio Geloso. It was like winning the lottery.

Fourteen months later, Talknow shows no signs of losing his remarkable form. Sunday at Fair Grounds he tackles stakes horses in the $75,000 Colonel Power Handicap, and despite once running in bottom-level claimers, Talknow is by no means overmatched.