SAN MATEO, Calif. - Bay Meadows didn't make a blip on the San Francisco Bay Area sports radar screen last Sunday.

There were two baseball playoff series being contested in the Bay Area - the Oakland A's losing a fifth and final game to the Minnesota Twins and the San Francisco Giants winning and forcing a deciding fifth game against the Atlanta Braves. In the National Football League, the San Francisco 49ers were playing host to the St. Louis Rams.

Bay Meadows figures more prominently Saturday, when it joins the bobble-head doll promotional frenzy, with a twist.

Ryan Fogelsonger, a 21-year-old apprentice rider, closed out the 20-day fall meet at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore with his first jockey's title and 49 wins, 27 better than the next closest rider.

Fogelsonger had two five-win days during the meet, which ended on Saturday. He leads the nation in wins among apprentice riders with 156.

The Indiana Horse Racing Commission approved Standardbred and Thoroughbred race meets in 2003 for both Hoosier Park and Indianapolis Downs at a commission meeting on Monday, but specific dates for the meets have not yet been set.

The commission approved a 70-day summer-fall Thoroughbred meet and a 50-day spring Standardbred meet at Hoosier Park, which is located in Andersen. Rick Moore, Hoosier general manager, said the track will request that its Thoroughbred meeting be held from Aug. 29 to Dec. 4.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Wando had barely crossed the wire as the emphatic winner of Sunday's Grey Stakes when talk of the Breeders' Cup started bubbling up.

Mike Keogh, who trains Wando for owner/breeder Gustav Schickedanz, was in the process of explaining to a Woodbine television host that he would have to see how the colt came out of the race before planning for the BC Juvenile when he suddenly felt his heart in his throat.

"The horse pulls up right in front of me, and takes a turn," Keogh explained after the interview. "Then I see his right foot, all covered in blood."

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Breeders' Cup horses are trickling into Arlington, with two Sprint candidates, including Xtra Heat, now on the grounds.

Xtra Heat arrived Sunday from Keeneland, where she gallantly won the Phoenix Breeders' Cup on Saturday. She's bedded down in a deserted shed row on the Arlington backstretch and will get her first look at the Arlington track surface either on Wednesday or Thursday, trainer John Salzman said.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Stablemates De Goddaughter ($5.60) and Aunt Sophie trailed the field early but unleashed strong rallies to finish one-two in Sunday's $60,350 Autumn Leaves Handicap at Bay Meadows.

ELMONT, N.Y. - After giving his connections a scary moment, Avanzado gave them something to think about with a three-quarters of a length victory in Sunday's Grade 2, $250,000 at Belmont Park.

The victory was Avanzado's third in as many tries since coming to this country from his native Argentina. Avanzado is not nominated to the Breeders' Cup, and it would cost owner Michael Cooper $200,000 to supplement for the $1 million Sprint on Oct. 26 at Arlington Park.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Pleasantly Perfect may be peaking at an ideal time. On Sunday at Santa Anita, the 4-year-old Pleasantly Perfect won his first stakes in the $500,000 , a victory that served as a prep for the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Arlington Park on Oct. 26.

Pleasantly Perfect's victory was the first of two major stakes wins for trainer Richard Mandella on Sunday. In the race after the Goodwood, The Tin Man won the $300,000 Clement Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Oz may have given nothing to The Tin Man, but the other five jockeys in the Grade 1, $300,000 gift-wrapped a present with a bright bow on Sunday at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting. They allowed The Tin Man to dictate the pace of the entire 1 1/4-mile grass race, and they never could catch him.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The lessons that Composure learned from her victory in Sunday's $250,000 at Santa Anita could pay major dividends later this month.

Making her first start around two turns, Composure won the Grade 2 Oak Leaf Stakes by three lengths, finishing 1 1-16 miles in 1:42.65. The Oak Leaf served as a prep to the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Arlington Park on Oct. 26.