OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Daily average total handle rose at the recently concluded 33-day Belmont Park fall meet, while daily average on track wagering was down.

Daily average total handle on Belmont races increased by 4.2 percent to $10,686,231 from $10,253,952 during the 31-day meet in 2001. Total handle, including simulcast imports, rose by 4.3 percent.

Figures from Breeders' Cup Day 2001 were not included in the calculations. Daily average ontrack handle dipped 4.5 percent from $1,352,046 to $1,291,008.

Rapid Proof, who made it into the race off the also-eligible list, surged to victory Friday in the $115,000 Hopemont Stakes at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.

Ridden by Calvin Borel, Rapid Proof swept to the lead with less than a quarter-mile remaining in the Hopemont, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for 2-year-old colts and geldings. He proceeded to win by a length over Zydeco Affair, the 9-2 second choice in a field of 10, while Collateral Damage was third, another neck behind. Lismore Knight, the 3-5 favorite under Pat Day, prompted the pace before fading to fourth.

The racing industry in Oklahoma has been in distress for the past several years, but it seems its struggles have reached a boiling point. During a dates hearing earlier this month, significant changes were made to the traditional racing calendar, with Oklahoma's biggest track, the Magna Entertainment-owned Remington Park, set to run only 70 days in 2003.

That's fewer than half of the 147 live dates that made up Remington's season in 1997.

It will take a little bit of work to handicap the $75,000 Magna Entertainment Classic at Remington Park in Oklahoma City on Sunday.

For the past three years, a win by Mr Ross has been a foregone conclusion in the 1 1/16-mile race that highlights the Oklahoma Classics Day program. But this year he's absent, and that makes the Classic more playable from a wagering standpoint than it has been since he started running roughshod over the division in 1999.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Richard Violette already knew he had a good grass filly in 2-year-old One and Twenty, so he took a shot and ran her on the dirt in the Grade 1 Frizette.

Violette's filly, a longshot, finished a non-threatening fourth.

"She showed us that she is a turf horse," Violette said. "She spun her wheels for a mile and a sixteenth, but she deserved a shot."

That effort shouldn't be held against One and Twenty when she returns to the grass on Sunday at Aqueduct as the likely favorite in the $75,000-added Miss Grillo.

GROVE CITY, Ohio - Starting highweight and likely odds-on choice Lady Cherie heads a field of 10 Ohio-accredited fillies and mares in Sunday's 1 1/16-mile, $45,000 Bobbie Bricker Memorial Handicap at Beulah Park.

Lady Cherie, who will be coupled in the wagering with Left Lane Lorrain as part of an M.Y. Stable Inc. entry, is one of only two horses entered in the Bricker who have a stakes win in 2002.

Cielo Girl, who is 5 for 10 this year, gets back to racing with 3-year-old fillies Sunday in the $30,000 Senorita Stakes at Louisiana Downs after just missing against older rivals last out in the Majorette Handicap.

The seven-furlong Senorita is being run for the first time since 1995.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - It may be easy, but it probably would be unwise to categorize Dispersed Reward - who runs in Sunday's $60,000-added Golden Poppy Handicap at Bay Meadows - as strictly a turf runner.

At first glance, one might think her connections were looking at a condition book from several years back, when the race was a graded turf fixture.

Ocean Drive, ridden by John Velazquez, stayed unbeaten in three career starts when running off to an easy victory Thursday in the $111,500 Green River Stakes at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.

Owned by Bonnie and Sy Baskin and trained by Todd Pletcher, Ocean Drive paid $4 as the favorite in a field of eight 2-year-old fillies. Sand Springs, the 3-1 second choice, was second, 4 3/4 lengths behind the winner and another 2 3/4 lengths ahead of Moonlight Sonata.

Handicappers who are thinking about backing Toccet in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile might want to first take a look at Saturday's Dover Stakes at Delaware Park.

Cape Good Hope, who raced up close for the first six furlongs of the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park before tiring to finish a distant fifth behind Toccet, returns in the one-mile, $100,000 Dover, one of six races on a card that begins at 10:45 a.m. on Breeders' Cup Day.