INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Handicappers who believe that current form and class still count for something will have a tough time interpreting High Wire Act in the feature race Thursday at Hollywood Park.

High Wire Act has no current form, having not raced in more than four months. As for class, the 6-year-old High Wire Act has not hit the board since January 2001. Twenty-two months later, who knows where he fits?

Trainer John Shirreffs may know.

"I haven't seen the field, but he's training well," he said. "We stopped on him and changed some things."

The connections of the California Cup winners already are looking forward to the next major statebred competition at Santa Anita. While the Great State Challenge on Dec. 7 at Sam Houston is scheduled in the interim, interest is growing for the $3.6 million Sunshine Millions on Jan. 25. The series of eight races - four at Santa Anita and four at Gulfstream Park - will pit California-breds against Florida-breds.

ALBANY, Calif. - Since the inception of the Thoroughbred Owners of California in 1993, many of the biggest owners in northern California have not been allowed to be part of the organization because they also were trainers.

Passage of Assembly Bill 2619 in late September created a new category of TOC membership for owner-trainers and their wives. Prior to passage of the bill owner-trainers were represented only through the California Thoroughbred Trainers organization.

Dr. Lewis will give up conditioning to all of his rivals in the $40,000 Racino Inaugural at Delta Downs on Thursday night, but he has the right connections to win the five-furlong race, which is the opener of the 80-night night meet in Vinton, La.

Doris Hebert, who trains Dr. Lewis, won the training title last meet, and Steve Bourque, who rides the horse, won the jockey title. Dr. Lewis also had a productive season last meet, winning a five-furlong allowance in a then-track record 57.80 seconds Jan. 18.

The bullring has gone big time.

Delta Downs, up until now a minor track in Vinton, La., plans to stage a $500,000 stakes for 2-year-olds and offer a record $160,000 a day in purses during its 80-night meet that opens Thursday and runs through March 23.

Delta's racing program has been overhauled courtesy of slot machines. The track was the first in Louisiana to install them, and since its casino opened Feb. 13, more than a million people have visited Delta.

Revenues from the machines through September had reached $84 million.

MIAMI - There comes a time in every good 3-year-old's career to find out how he stacks up against older horses. For The Judge Sez Who, that time will come a week from Saturday in the $200,000 Carl G. Rose Classic. The Rose is the co-feature on Calder's inaugural Florida Millions Day, a series of races for Florida-breds.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - With just under two months left in the year, jockey Jerry Bailey is poised to break two single-season records.

Bailey's victory on Tates Creek in Sunday's Las Palmas Handicap at Santa Anita was his 60th stakes victory of the year, leaving him six shy of Mike Smith's one-year record of 66 set in 1994. Moreover, Bailey's mounts have earned $21,756,194, a mere $1.1 million off the record $22,857,720 that he established in 2001. Both figures represent money earned for winning the Dubai World Cup, a race Bailey won in both 2001 and 2002.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Receiving a perfect rail-skimming ride from Jose Santos, Snake Mountain won Tuesday's Grade 3, $113,400 Stuyvesant Handicap by a half-length over lukewarm favorite Windsor Castle before 4,078 at Aqueduct.

It was the first stakes victory for Snake Mountain, who was a bust on the turf in Ireland for trainer Aidan O'Brien. He was purchased for $50,000 by his current connections - which include Berkshire Stud, Charles Broman, and Jack Shelley - and he has won six of nine starts and earned $241,920 for them.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Todd Pletcher was excited to learn that Thursday's third-level allowance race for 3-year-olds and up had filled. Furthermore, Pletcher was thrilled to learn that his entrant, Smooth Jazz, drew the outside post in the seven-horse field in Aqueduct's feature at one mile.

The only thing Pletcher was not thrilled about is the prospect of a wet track. "He doesn't have an affinity for it," Pletcher said. "I guess we'll have a decision to make it if it's wet."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Byzantine and Red Sea, a pair of 6-year-olds with contrasting backgrounds, made the most of their final turf opportunities of the meeting here last Sunday.

Byzantine, bred in Ontario by her owners, Tony and Jennifer Monk, became a stakes winner in the $114,000 River Memories, a one-mile race for fillies and mares. She also became the first stakes winner for trainer Bruce Pollock, who has been in the racing business since 1969.